Living Donor Advocacy - An Evolving Role Within Transplantation

The inadequate supply of organs in the United States and other countries continues to drive the reliance on living donor transplantation. In 2000, representatives of the transplant community convened for a meeting on living donation in an effort to provide guidelines to promote the welfare of living donors. The consensus statement that resulted from this meeting recommended that transplant centers retain an Independent Living Donor Advocate (ILDA) to focus on the best interest of the donor. A decade later, nearly every transplant center in the United States, performing living donor surgeries, has incorporated an ILDA into their living donor screening and/or evaluation process Living Donor Advocate provides an overview of living donation and its risks, ethical challenges and future developments​, as well as details about the role a Living Donor Advocate plays in the transplantation process. This book will interest health professionals across various disciplines and patients undergoing transplantation or living donor surgery.    

Jennifer Steel is an Independent Living Donor Advocate (ILDA) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Transplant Center. She is also on the executive committee of ILDAs for the National Kidney Foundation, and recently published the results of a national survey of ILDAs in the American Journal of Transplantation and completed a webinar for the Department of Health and Human Services concerning living donor advocacy.