Off the Hook?

doi:10.1017/9781009400886.033

Chapter 32 - Off the Hook?

TA-NRP and the Pressures of Organ Procurement

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2025

Denise M. Dudzinski and

James N. Kirkpatrick

Edited by

Denise M. Dudzinski ,

Kaarkuzhali Babu Krishnamurthy and

Paul J. Ford

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Denise M. Dudzinski: Affiliation:
University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
Kaarkuzhali Babu Krishnamurthy: Affiliation:
Boston Medical Center-Brighton
Paul J. Ford: Affiliation:
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland

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Summary

We describe our personal and professional struggles with an organizational ethics consultation involving thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion (TA-NRP), an organ procurement technique used after circulatory death. We ultimately concluded that TA-NRP is ethically permissible (with caveats), yet we are haunted. Our advice was taken seriously, but was it the right advice? Our recommendations might have let us off the hook.

Keywords

clinical ethics normothermic regional perfusion organ procurement bioethics transplantation ethics consultation

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Complex Ethics Consultations
Cases That Haunt Us in a New Era
, pp. 223 - 228

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009400886.033 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2026

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