Homelessness, organ donation, transplantation, and a call for equity in the United States

Abstract

While social justice is a pillar that society seeks to uphold, in the area of organ transplantation, social justice, equity, and inclusion fail in the unbefriended and undomiciled population. Due to lack of social support of the homeless population, such status often renders these individuals ineligible to be organ recipients. Though it can be argued that organ donation by an unbefriended, undomciled patient benefits the greater good, there is clear inequity in the fact that homeless individuals are denied transplants due to inadequate social support. To illustrate such social breakdown, we describe two unbefriended, undomiciled patients brought to our hospitals by emergency services with diagnoses of intracerebral haemorrhage that progressed to brain death. This proposal represents a call to action to remediate the broken system: how the inherent inequity in organ donation by unbefriended, undomiciled patients would be ethically optimized if social support systems were implemented to allow for their candidacy for organ transplantation.

Keywords: Ethics; Homelessness; Organ donation; Transplantation.