Frontiers in TransplantationExperimental studiesFeatures and Ethical Considerations Associated With Living Kidney and Liver Transplantations in South Korea

When the Organ Transplantation Act came into effect in 2000 in South Korea, living organ donations were legalized and the Korean Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS) had a duty to approve the application of donation. The number of living organ donors has increased and the waiting time of recipients has been steady or decreased. The Organ Transplantation Act mainly focuses on the informed consent process of donations, so unrelated directed donations are permitted unless there is a suspicion of organ trafficking. But the annual reports show that directed donations of unrelated and related donors may have an ethical concern about organ sales. The donations of family members show another ethical concern. The numbers of ABO-incompatible transplantations have steadily increased since 2008, and lineal descendants, including minors, comprised 61% of living liver donors in 2012. Addressing the unethical practices without inhibiting living organ donations is the current task in South Korea. Private agencies have actively operated the living organ donations programs. The web-based computerized organ exchange program has been cooperatively run by hospital-based organizations. The strict legal regulations that could decrease living organ donations are hard to adopt. In the current situation, the functions of the official system need to be more developed. A national organ exchange program run by KONOS could be an option which could reduce ABO-incompatible transplantations and relieve the ethical concern of organ sales in unrelated directed donations.