Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects of Organ Transplantation

The European platform on Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects of Organ Transplantation (ELPAT) is a section of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT).

ELPAT was founded in April 2007, during the first ELPAT congress in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  ELPAT membership represents expertise on ethical, legal and psychosocial aspects of organ transplantation in Europe.

The aim of ELPAT is to facilitate the European research area in this field of science, and to bring continuity and progress in the dialogue on the complex issues of organ transplantation ethics. Through this, ELPAT aims to contribute to the solution of discrepancies between European countries and formulates, amongst others, European guidelines on ethical, legal and psychosocial aspects of organ transplantation. One of the ways to achieve this was the publishing of a 600 paged, state-of-the-art handbook, containing over 70 high quality contributions from authors all over the world. The book also reflects the main discussion themes of the ELPAT Congress in 2007.  

Within ELPAT six working groups are active. These working groups are: Deceased Donation, Legal Boundaries for Organ Transplantation in Europe, Organ Tourism and Paid Donation, Psychological Care for Living Donors and Recipients, Diverse Populations, and Samaritan Donation. These working groups consist of professionals from various disciplines, such as transplant medicine, ethics, psychology, law and policy-making. ELPAT invites those who take an interest in its activities to join its network and become a member of one of its working groups.

ELPAT membership is gained at no additional fee by informing the ELPAT Secretariat. During the Second ELPAT Congress in 2010, the research activities and results of each working group will be presented. This Congress will take place from April 17^th-20^st 2010 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Registration for this congress opens in June 2009.  

More information about ELPAT members and its scope of activities can be found on http://www.elpat.org/.   

ELPAT PROGRAMME AT ESOT 2009 

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

STATE-OF-THE-ART ETHICAL, LEGAL AND PHSYCOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION 

Living unrelated organ donation. From caring partner to Good Samaritan. 

Chairs:  Annette Lennerling, Göteborg, Sweden; Willem Weimar, Rotterdam, the Netherlands 

09:00    Caring partner. Is it only love? Pitfalls in living related organ donation   

            Nikola Biller-Andorno, Zürich, Switzerland 

09:20     In between. Hurdles for living unrelated organ donation                       

             Bijan Fateh-Moghadam, Münich, Germany 

09:40      Good Samaritan. An update on European practices     

              Willij C. Zuidema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands 

10:00     Discussion