The Ethics of Persuasion: Evaluating the Ethical Limits on Attempting to Persuade Families to Donate the Organs of Deceased Family Members

Abstract

This chapter examines the ethics of using persuasive techniques to encourage families to consent to organ donation by their deceased loved ones. We review the literature on the psychological effects of donation on families, and consider when and how the treatment of families in the requesting and donation process might put their future psychological well-being at increased risk. We also consider lawsuits brought against healthcare personnel for the negligent infliction of psychiatric injury on family members in several end-of-life contexts including organ donation. Although successful lawsuits arising from the manner in which families are asked to consent are unlikely for several reasons, there are lawsuits in partly analogous contexts that do shed light on the types of treatment that may raise ethical, if not legal, concerns. We do not attempt to propose boundaries for the use of persuasive techniques, as the question of how much risk to families is justified by the potential benefits sought for others (e.g. transplant recipients) is a difficult problem that exceeds the scope of this chapter. Nonetheless, we identify some persuasive practices as ethically justifiable and others that require further ethical consideration.