Ethics and the Kidney

This text aims to provide a comprehensive review of ethical issues in clinical nephrology. The first section examines the historical perspective, followed by a consideration of legal issues. Specific ethical issues in nephrology are discussed in detail in the next section.

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This book provides a comprehensive review of ethical issues in clinical nephrology. With the advent of dialysis and kidney transplantation midway through the 20 Century, clinical nephrology was one of the first areas of medicine to deal with complex ethical issues such as rationing of health care and discontinuation of life-sustaining therapy. In the first section of the book this historical perspective is reviewed, followed by a consideration of legal issues. Specific ethical issues in nephrology are discussed in detail in the next section. These include problems in the allocation of chronic dialysis and in termination of that treatment. Also reviewed are issues in kidney transplantation, such as proposals for enhanced acquisition of kidneys, including a number of controversial proposals such as payment to donors and xenotransplantation; and equity in allocation of the supply of kidneys. Other chapters consider ethical issues in genetics; special problems in the care of children with kidney disease; and broad societal issues such as allocation of national resources for expensive therapies and economic issues in clinical practice. In the final part of the book ethical issues in the care of patients with kidney disease are discussed from an Asian and African perspective.