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Bien que largement accepté dans la communauté médicale, le concept de mort cérébrale est encore mal compris par certains professionnels de la santé et par le public en général. Il est au centre de débats et demeure une source de controverses. Malgré la confusion et les variations de pratiques documentées, les sources d’incertitudes et de confusion entourant le concept n’ont pas encore été étudiées en profondeur. Pourtant, cette confusion est à même d’influencer les débats et les décisions de fin de vie et de don d’organes, et soulève ainsi de sérieuses considérations tant éthiques que médicales. Ce mémoire de maîtrise propose d’abord une revue de la littérature discutant des origines, de l’évolution et des débats en lien avec le concept de mort cérébrale et les enjeux éthiques associés. Les approches méthodologiques utilisées pour la réalisation de cette recherche sont ensuite décrites. Les résultats découlant de l’analyse de contenu qualitative de médias canadiens et américains des différentes représentations de la mort cérébrales qu’on y retrouve suivent. Ces résultats décrivent l’utilisation du terme de « mort cérébrale » dans des contextes de don d’organes, de définitions de la mort cérébrale, de détermination de la mort, d’enjeux de fin de vie, d’enjeux légaux ainsi que des usages familiers du terme. Finalement, une discussion générale quant au rôle de la terminologie utilisée pour parler du concept de mort cérébrale puis celui des professionnels de la santé impliqués dans sa détermination et les pratiques de don d’organes, ainsi que des recommandations pour le futur concluront ce mémoire. / Despite being widely accepted by the medical community, the concept of brain death is still misunderstood by healthcare providers and the general public. It is central to several debates and remains a source of controversy. In spite of documented practice variations and conceptual confusion surrounding brain death, the upstream sources of variability and uncertainty have not been extensively investigated. This confusion is likely to influence debates and decisions about end-of-life and organ donation, and thus raises serious medical and ethical considerations. This thesis first proposes a review of the literature discussing the origins, the evolution and the debates related to the concept of brain death, as well as the ethical issues associated with brain death. The methodological approaches used for the realization of this research are then described. The results obtained from the qualitative content analysis of Canadian and American media about the different depictions of brain death follow. These results describe the use of the term “brain death” in contexts of organ donation, definitions of brain death, determination of death, end-of-life issues, legal issues and also colloquial uses of the term. Finally, a general discussion about the role of the terminology used to discuss the concept and that of healthcare professionals involved in its determination and organ donation practices, as well as recommendations for the future will conclude this thesis. / Domaine de recherche: Bioéthique

Over the last few years, policies have been introduced in the UK which aim to improve organ transplantation rates by changing the way that potential organ donors are treated before death. Patients incapacitated due to catastrophic brain injury may now undergo ante-mortem donor optimisation procedures to facilitate deceased organ donation. As I identify in this thesis, the most significant ethical and legal problem with these policies is that they are not based on what the patient would have chosen for themselves in the specific circumstances. The policies identify and treat patients meeting certain clinical criteria as a group rather than the individuals, with their own viewpoints, that the law on best interests requires. They equate registration on the Organ Donation Register with ante-mortem donor optimisation procedures being in their best interests, despite registrants having neither been informed about nor given consent to ante-mortem interventions. The overarching claim I make in this thesis is that a system of specific advance consent is needed to provide a clear and unequivocal legal justification for ante-mortem donor optimisation procedures. The ethical foundation for this claim is autonomy, and this is the central theme running through all six chapters. I argue that autonomy should be incorporated into donor optimisation policy to promote the dignity and integrity of potential organ donors and to safeguard trust in the organ donation programme. I argue that a system of specific advance consent is needed as part of the duty of care owed to registrants on the Organ Donor Register and to facilitate the determination of the best interests of the potential organ donor. I argue that the state has not established the necessity of the current policy of non-consensual donor optimisation procedures and that they are under an ethical and legal obligation to introduce an autonomy-based framework for ante-mortem interventions to facilitate organ donation.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it makes a normative idea analysis concerning organ donation, by comparing the perspectives of utilitarianism and classical liberalism. Secondly, it applies these perspectives on the Swedish legislation, in order to understand it in a political philosophical view. As a theoretical framework, the paper uses the two perspectives´ overarching ethical standpoints, but also try to discern their views on four - for the topic -appropriate concepts, these being the concepts of liberty, consent and self-ownership. These are then bundled together into two so-called ”ideal types”, to use for making normative statements about what the most morally right legislation would be concerning organ donation. In utilitarianism, an agent-neutral overall happiness is at the forefront, which leads it to prioritize an increase in donations over the autonomy of the individual. This makes the case for a conscription of organs or the softer notion of an opt-out system. Classical liberalism focus more on the right to self-ownership and negative liberty, and therefore argue for an opt-in system, which requires the explicit consent of the individual. Lastly, the paper makes the claim that the Swedish legislation falls in a category inbetween the normative judgements of the two perspectives, as it prescribes an opt-out system, but reserves the right of the family to refuse a donation, in case the deceased had not made a choice ante mortem.

Bakgrund: Organdonation kan rädda människors liv när all annan möjlig behandling redan testats. Behovet av organ i Sverige överskrider idag tillgången, vilket resulterar i att människor avlider i väntan på ett organ. Förutom att möjliggöra en människas överlevnad är transplantation mer kostnadseffektivt än kontinuerlig behandling. I nuläget finns inga nationella riktlinjer i Sverige för utbildning inom organdonation för intensivvårdssjuksköterskor. Forskning har visat att intensivvårdssjuksköterskans arbete är av stor vikt för donationsprocessen. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att belysa behovet av utbildning hos intensivvårdssjuksköterskor som vårdar potentiella avlidna donatorer. Metod: Studien har utförts genom en litteraturstudie med systematisk datainsamling. Integrativ metod med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys har använts då artiklar med både kvalitativ och kvantitativ ansats analyserats för att besvara syftet för studien. Resultat: En stor del intensivvårdssjuksköterskor upplevde sig vara obekväma med att vårda organdonatorer. Vårdandet av en donator kan medföra att mycket känslor uppstår hos intensivvårdssjuksköterskan och upplevdes som mentalt påfrestande. Utbildning inom organdonation kan hjälpa intensivvårdssjuksköterskan att hantera dessa känslor. Utbildning kan även leda till att fler potentiella donatorer identifieras. Utbildning behöver ges regelbundet och intensivvårdssjuksköterskan behöver specifikt utbildning om donationsprocessen, bemötande och kommunikation av de närstående samt skillnader i hjärt- och hjärndöda patienter. Slutsats: Intensivvårdssjuksköterskan behöver få en djupare förståelse av vården kring organdonation och få en ökad kunskap och utbildning för att stärka sin professionella roll. Utbildning kan även förbättra donationsprocessen och möjliggöra för fler donatorer. Vidare forskning inom området anses behövas för att utveckla vården kring donatorer och närstående. / Background: Organ donation can save lives when all other treatment options have been exhausted. Today, the demand for organs in Sweden exceeds supply, resulting in people dying in wait for an available organ for transplantation. In addition to saving a person’s life, transplantations are more cost-effective than continuous treatment. Currently, there are no national guidelines for the provision of training in the area of organ donations for intensive care nurses. Research has shown that the efforts of intensive care nurses play a major role in the donation process. Aim: The aim of this study is to shed light on the need for training of intensive care nurses caring for potential deceased donors. Methodology: The study was conducted through a literature review with systematic data collection. An integrative method with qualitative content analysis was employed, as articles with both qualitative and quantitative approaches were analysed to shed light on the aim of the study. Findings: A large proportion of intensive care nurses felt uncomfortable caring for organ donors. Caring for a donor can be a very emotional and mentally trying experience for intensive care nurses. Organ donation training can help intensive care nurses cope with these feelings. Training can also result in the identification of more potential donors. Regular training is necessary, and intensive care nurses require specific training on the donation process, treatment and communication with next of kin as well as differences between donation after cardiac death patients and donation after brain death patients. Conclusion: The intensive care nurses needs to gain a deeper understanding of the care surrounding organ donation. To increase the professional role of the nurse there is a need to strengthen the knowledge and education. The donation process could be improved by education, which can lead to more organ donations. Further research within this area of expertise needs to be done to be able to develop the care for the donors and their families.

Au cours de l’été 2014, le cas d’un patient conscient, dépendant d'un respirateur, ayant demandé un arrêt de traitement vital et exprimé le souhait de faire don de ses organes a secoué la communauté québécoise du don d’organes et de la transplantation. Ce fut le début d’une réflexion importante quant à l’acceptabilité du don d’organes chez des personnes conscientes et aptes ayant choisi de mettre fin à un traitement vital. Cette réflexion était d’autant plus pertinente que le gouvernement québécois préparait sa Loi concernant les soins de fin de vie qui allait rendre légale l’aide médicale à mourir (AMM). Puisqu’il était cliniquement possible pour certains patients de faire un don d’organes suite à une AMM, il était probable que la légalisation de cette pratique augmente le nombre de patients conscients désirant donner leurs organes alors qu’ils auraient choisi de mourir. La littérature sur les enjeux éthiques soulevés par ce type de dons d’organes était alors quasi inexistante et, au moment de débuter le projet de recherche, des lignes directrices de pratique n’existaient pas au Québec et au Canada. Il devenait donc impératif de mieux identifier les enjeux éthiques et de les analyser afin de contribuer à l’encadrement de ces nouvelles pratiques. Il n’y avait également aucune étude décrivant les perspectives des professionnels de la santé face à de tels dons. Les objectifs de ce projet de thèse étaient i) d’identifier les enjeux éthiques soulevés par le don d’organes chez un patient conscient et apte demandant un retrait de thérapie de maintien des fonctions vitales ou une AMM; ii) d’analyser ces enjeux à l’aide de théories éthiques; iii) de connaître et comprendre les perspectives des professionnels de la santé sur les enjeux soulevés par le don d’organes dans ces contextes particuliers; iv) finalement, de mettre en relation les perspectives des professionnels et les politiques qui ont été adoptées au Québec depuis sa mise en route. Nous avons donc mené une étude exploratoire qualitative par le biais d’entretiens avec des professionnels du don d’organes susceptibles d’être impliqués à un moment ou un autre dans le processus du don d’organes par un patient apte ayant demandé un retrait de thérapie de maintien des fonctions vitales ou une AMM. Notre échantillon comprenait médecins et infirmiers des soins intensifs, de la salle d’opération ou impliqués en don d’organes dans deux centres hospitaliers montréalais très actifs au niveau du don d’organes (CHUM et l’Hôpital Sacré-Cœur) et à Transplant Québec. Nous avons identifié les enjeux éthiques à l’aide d’une revue de littérature et par l’analyse des perspectives des professionnels. Les principaux enjeux éthiques sont liés au respect de l’autonomie des patients, à l’information à fournir ou non aux donneurs potentiels, à l’objection de conscience par les professionnels, à la possibilité pour les receveurs de refuser ou non les organes provenant de l’AMM, à l’acceptabilité du don d’organes suite à une AMM confidentielle, à la règle du donneur décédé́, à la possibilité de diriger un don d’organe vers un receveur désigné par le donneur et à l’acceptabilité de choisir l’AMM pour rendre possible le don d’organes. Nous avons d’abord analysé ces enjeux éthiques à l’aide du modèle de l’équilibre réflexif large de Norman Daniels et nous avons ensuite intégré à notre analyse les perspectives des participants sur les différents enjeux selon le modèle de l’équilibre réflexif- normatif empirique. À la lumière de nos résultats, nous pouvons conclure que : i) le don d’organes pour les patients aptes demandant une AMM ou un retrait de thérapies de maintien des fonctions vitales était, de manière générale, éthiquement acceptable dans le contexte légal en vigueur au moment de notre recherche; ii) les patients demandant l’AMM et souffrant d’une maladie compatible avec le don d’organes devaient être informés de la possibilité qui s’offre à eux de faire un don d’organes; iii) les objections de conscience devraient être respectées dans la mesure où elles ne compromettent pas l’accès aux soins des patients; iv) la possibilité de refuser des organes provenant de l’AMM devrait être offerte aux receveurs lors de leur inscription sur la liste d’attente et v) un patient désirant faire don de ses organes suite à une AMM qu’il désire garder confidentielle devrait être informé de toutes les implications liées au contexte particulier du prélèvement et consentir à un bris de la confidentialité afin de minimiser les risques de nuire au don d’organes. Certaines de ces conclusions sont contraires aux politiques en vigueur. Notre étude a contribué à mieux cerner les enjeux éthiques soulevés par le don d’organes dans ces nouveaux contextes. De plus, nous identifions les enjeux pour lesquels une réflexion plus poussée , et possiblement une révision des lignes directrices, s’imposent. Plusieurs questions demeurent et de nouvelles questions surgissent alors que des modifications aux critères d’admissibilité à l’AMM sont entrevues à court ou à moyen terme (AMM en dehors de la fin de vie, en cas de maladie mentale ou pour les patients inaptes ayant fait une demande anticipée). / In the summer of 2014, the case of a conscious patient, respirator dependent, who requested a withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy and expressed the wish to donate his organs shook the Quebec organ donation and transplantation community. It was the beginning of an important reflection on the acceptability of organ donation in conscious and competent people who have chosen to stop vital treatment. This reflection was timely as the Quebec government was preparing its End-of-Life Care Act, which would make medical assistance in dying (MAID) legal. Since it was clinically possible for some patients to donate organs following MAID, it was likely that the legalization of this practice would increase the number of conscious patients wishing to donate their organs when they would have chosen to die. The literature on the ethical issues raised by this type of organ donation was then almost non-existent and, at the time the research project began, practice guidelines did not exist in Quebec and Canada. It therefore became imperative to identify these ethical issues and to analyze them in order to contribute to the guidance of these new practices. There was also no study describing the perspectives of health professionals regarding such donations. The objectives of this doctoral project were (i) to identify the ethical issues raised by organ donation in a conscious and competent patient requesting withdrawal of life sustaining therapy or MAID; (ii) to analyze these issues using ethical theories; (iii) to obtain and understand the perspectives of health professionals on the issues raised by organ donation in these particular contexts; (iv) finally, to compare the perspectives of professionals to the policies that have been adopted in Quebec since its inception. We therefore conducted a qualitative exploratory study through interviews with organ donation professionals likely to be involved in the organ donation process by a conscious patient who has requested withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy or MAID. Our sample included physicians and nurses in intensive care, operating room or involved in organ donation in two Montreal hospital centers that are very active in organ donation (CHUM and Hôpital Sacré-Cœur) and at Transplant Québec. We identified ethical issues through a literature review and by analyzing the perspectives of professionals. The main ethical issues are related to respect for patient autonomy, information to be provided to potential donors, conscientious objection by professionals, the possibility for recipients to refuse organs procured after MAID, the acceptability of organ donation following a confidential MAID, the dead donor rule, the acceptability of directing an organ to a specific recipient designated by the donor and the acceptability of choosing MAID in order to make organ donation possible. We first analyzed these ethical issues using Norman Daniels' wide reflexive equilibrium model and then incorporated participants' perspectives on the various issues using the normative empirical - reflexive equilibrium model into our analysis. Based on our results, we can conclude that : (i) organ donation for competent patients requesting MAID or withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies was generally ethically acceptable within the legal context in effect at the time of our research; (ii) patients requesting MAID and suffering from a disease compatible with organ donation should be informed of the possibility of organ donation; and (iii) conscientious objections should be respected as long as they do not compromise patients' access to care; iv) recipients should be offered the opportunity to refuse organs procured after MAID when they are placed on the waiting list; and v) a patient who wishes to donate his or her organs following MAID that he or she wishes to keep confidential should be informed of all the implications related to the specific context of the procurement and should consent to a breach of confidentiality in order to minimize the risk of undermining public trust in organ donation. Some of these conclusions are contrary to current policies. Our study has contributed to a better understanding of the ethical issues raised by organ donation in these new contexts. In addition, we identify issues that require further reflection and possibly a revision of the guidelines in place. Many questions remain and new ones arise as changes to the MAID eligibility criteria are foreseen (MAID outside of the end-of-life context, in cases of mental illness or by advanced request).

Antalet organdonatorer i Sverige räcker inte för att täcka behovet för dem som är i behov av organtransplantation. För att kunna bli organdonator krävs att vården vet om den avlidnes vilja. Det säkraste sättet att meddela sin vilja är genom donationsregister. Denna uppsats beskriver en förregistrerad experimentell mellangruppstudie som undersökte om deltagarnas (N = 348) intention till att registrera sig som organdonator påverkas av att få information om en person som är i behov av ett organ, jämfört med statistisk information. Dessutom undersöktes om intentionen påverkas av om det identifierade offret framställs som oskyldig eller icke-oskyldig. Datainsamlingen skedde via pappersenkäter. De mått som användes för intention att registrera sig som organdonator var dels självskattad intention, dels ett beteendemått där deltagarna fick svara på om de ville ha mer information. Resultaten av analysen av datan visade varken stöd för att ett oskyldigt identifierat offer skulle påverka deltagare till högre intention, eller att ett icke-oskyldigt identifierat offer skulle påverka deltagare till lägre intention. Någon signifikant skillnad fanns inte mellan grupperna för något av måtten. Studien gjordes inom ett område som inte är välbeforskat och mer forskning behövs för att kunna dra säkra slutsatser av resultatet. / The number of organ donors in Sweden is not enough to support the demand for those in need of organ transplants. To be able to become an organ donor the health services needs to know the will of the deceased. The surest way to announce one's will is through a donation register. This essay describes a pre-registered experimental between-group study that examined whether the participants’ (N = 348) intention to register as an organ donor is affected by receiving information about a person who is in need of an organ, compared with statistical information. In addition, it was examined whether the intention is affected by whether the identified are presented as innocent or non-innocent. Data gathering was done via paper surveys. The measures used for intention to register as an organ donor were partly a self-assessed intention, and partly a behavioral measure where the participants were to answer if they wanted more information. The results of the analysis of data neither supported that presentation of an innocent identified victim would influence participants to higher intention, nor that a non-innocently identified victim would influence participants to lower intention. There was no significant difference between the groups for any of the measures. The study was conducted in a field that is not well researched. More research is needed to be able to draw any absolute conclusions from the results.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Living donors have contributed about 6,000 kidneys per year in the past 10 years, but more than 100,000 individuals are still waiting for a kidney transplant. Living kidney donors undergo a major surgical procedure without direct medical benefit to themselves, but comprehensive follow-up information on living donors’ health is unfortunately limited. Expert recommendations suggest capturing clinical information beyond traditional sources to improve surveillance of co-morbid conditions from living kidney donors. Currently the United Network for Organ Sharing is responsible for collecting and reporting follow-up data for all living donors from U.S. transplant centers. Under policy implemented in February of 2013, transplant centers must submit follow-up date for two years after donation, but current processes often yield to incomplete and untimely reporting. This dissertation uses a statewide Health Information Exchange as a new clinical data source to 1) retrospectively identify a cohort of living kidney donors, 2) understand their follow-up care patterns, and 3) observe selected clinical outcomes including hypertension, diabetes and post-donation renal function.

Le diagnostic de mort cérébrale est une étape complexe et chronophage lors de l'évaluation des patients en soins intensifs soupçonnés d'être en décès neurologique. Bien que les critères neurologiques cliniques qui déterminent la mort cérébrale soient largement acceptés dans le monde, le diagnostic reste imparfait et l'utilisation de tests auxiliaires tels que la perfusion tomographique cérébrale (CTP) est souvent nécessaire pour le confirmer. L'objectif principal de ce travail était d'explorer la faisabilité de classer la mort cérébrale à partir de scans CTP par le traitement automatique de l’image. Les scans CTP de l'étude prospective canadienne multicentrique de validation du CTP pour le diagnostic de décès neurologique ont été regroupées à partir de 11 sites participants (INDex-CTP, ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03098511). Des caractéristiques spatiales et temporelles ont été extraites en utilisant une combinaison de deux modules de convolution et utilisées pour prédire la mort neurologique. Les performances du modèle ont également été évaluées sur différentes catégories de blessures cérébrales. Les études de 217 patients ont été utilisées pour entraîner le modèle. Nous rapportons une AUC de 0,79 (IC95 % 0,76-0,82), un score F1 de 0,82 (IC95 % 0,80-0,83), une précision de 0,92 (IC95 % 0,91-0,93), un rappel de 0,76 (CI95 % 0,72-0,79) ainsi qu'une valeur prédictive négative de 0,49 (CI95 % 0,45-0,53). En raison de la petite taille d'échantillon, nous n'avons pas effectué de tests statistiques sur des sous-ensembles de lésions cérébrales, mais avons signalé une valeur prédictive négative du modèle présumé plus élevée sur des blessures cérébrales anoxiques avec 0,82 (CI95 % 0,77-0,87). Ce modèle montre des preuves préliminaires soutenant la faisabilité de développer un réseau neuronal profond pour classer les patients comateux comme étant neurologiquement décédés ou non. Des recherches supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour valider et améliorer le modèle en utilisant des ensembles de données plus vastes et diversifiés. / The diagnostic of brain death is a complex and chronophage step when evaluating patients in critical care suspected of being neurologically deceased. Although the clinical neurological criteria that determine brain death are mostly accepted worldwide, the diagnosis remains imperfect and often the use of ancillary tests such as brain computed tomography perfusion (CTP) are required to confirm it. The main objective of this work was to explore the feasibility of classifying brain death from CTP scans using deep learning. CTP studies from a multicenter prospective diagnostic cohort study with the primary objective of evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of neurological death using CTP were pooled from 11 participating sites (INDex-CTP, ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03098511). Spatial and temporal features were extracted using a combination of two convolution modules and used to predict neurological death. The performance of the model was also evaluated on subsets of cerebral injuries. 217 patients' studies were used to train the model. We report an AUC of 0.79 (IC95% 0.76-0.82), a F1 score of 0.82 (IC95% 0.80-0.83), a precision of 0.92 (IC95% 0.91-0.93), a recall of 0.76 (CI95% 0.72-0.79) as well as a negative predictive value of 0.49 (CI95% 0.45-0.53). Due to a lack of sample size, we did not perform statistical tests on subsets of cerebral injury, but report suspected higher model negative predictive value on anoxic cerebral injury with 0.82 (CI95% 0.77-0.87). This model shows preliminary evidence supporting the feasibility of developing a deep neural network to classify comatose patients as neurologically deceased or not. Additional research is needed to validate and refine the model by employing larger and more diverse datasets.

長久以來，台灣一直存在捐贈器官不足的情形，阻滯器官移植的進展。如何在現有的法令規範中，突破面臨的困境，增加器官捐贈及移植的來源？如何適切修正現有法令規範的限制，造福更多等待器官移植的患者，使其重獲生命價值與意義？是筆者一直深切期待的。台灣移植器官來源面臨的困境，包括華人社會特有的文化習俗、器官捐贈登錄制度推廣不易、指定捐贈與親屬限制等原因；其所造成的影響包括國人器官捐贈意願降低、前往中國大陸或海外尋求移植的人數大量增加、可能的違法器官買賣等。本文將逐一加以探究其原因，藉以了解制度面與實際執行面的差異。 為了進一步探討器官移植相關法規在台灣司法實務面運作的情形，本文將整理解析近年相關的民事、刑事及行政裁判。尤其，目前最新《人體器官捐贈移植條例》修正草案正在立法院審議中，本文亦將分析其重要法規內容，探討新舊法規之差異，預測立法通過後執行面之走向，並提出草案未通過前的因應作法，以及歸納分析國外類似法規，以提供未來再修法之參考。 本篇論文的主要目的，期盼藉由上開各個面向的探討與法律制度的論述，檢視器官移植的必要性與適法性，試圖提出應有的建議與策略，以供醫界、法界及相關行政主管機關參考，修正器官移植的適法性，增加合法的器官捐贈來源，以解決台灣目前所存在的器官移植困境。 / In Taiwan, the progress of organ transplants has long been deterred by the shortage of organ donations. As a surgeon, the thoughts of finding ways to increase the numbers and sources of organ transplants under the current laws, and of modifying the inappropriate restrictions of the current laws in order to benefit more patients waiting for organ transplants and hopefully new lives, have always been lingering in my mind. The dilemma of organ donation shortage comes from: Chinese traditional customs, unsuccessful promotion of the organ donation registration system, and the restrictions of laws regarding the designated organ donators and relatives. The results are: the low willingness of organ donations by the general public, the increasing numbers of patients going overseas and to China for organ transplants, illegal organ trading, etc. This paper is aimed to explore the reasons behind the current results so that we can get a better view of the differences between the current legal system and the actual implementation. In order to better understand how the current organ transplant laws are carried out by the legal authorities in Taiwan's judicial systems, this paper will examine and analyze the past civil, criminal, and executive decisions related to the organ transplantations. Currently the new amendment of the “Human Organ Transplant Bill” is still in the Legislative Yuan's review process. So this paper will analyze the detailed contents of this amended bill, discuss the differences between the original and the amended bill and the direction of the legislation execution, recommend the proper solutions before the amended bill is passed, and analyze and induce other countries' organ transplantation bills for future amending reference. The purpose of this paper is aimed to achieve the goal of proposing proper recommendations and strategies, through inspecting the necessity and legitimacy of organ transplant from various legal system discourses and amendments, to the fields of medicine, law and related government authorities regarding to the legitimacy of organ transplant and increasing the sources of the legal organ donations, in order to lessen the current Taiwan's organ donation plight.