ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES IN DONATION AFTER CARDIAC DEATH IN ITALY

In Italy death of a human being must be declared either after brain death or after 20 minutes of cardiac arrest, certified by continuous electrocardiography (EKG) recording. It is my personal opinion that in such circumstances after cardiac death (DCD) will allow at best only the retrieval of few marginal kidneys and some tissues, and therefore will not be very helpful for our waiting list patients. I suggest instead modifying first the Italian law in order to be able to declare cardiac death after only 5 minutes of cardiac arrest, certified by continuous EKG recording. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.