PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - John Coggon
TI  - Elective ventilation for organ donation: law, policy and public ethics
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2012-100992
DP  - 2013 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 130--134
VI  - 39
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/3/130.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/3/130.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2013 Mar 01; 39
AB  - This paper examines questions concerning elective ventilation, contextualised within English law and policy. It presents the general debate with reference both to the Exeter Protocol on elective ventilation, and the considerable developments in legal principle since the time that that protocol was declared to be unlawful. I distinguish different aspects of what might be labelled elective ventilation policies under the following four headings: ‘basic elective ventilation’; ‘epistemically complex elective ventilation’; ‘practically complex elective ventilation’; and ‘epistemically and practically complex elective ventilation’. I give a legal analysis of each. In concluding remarks on their potential practical viability, I emphasise the importance not just of ascertaining the legal and ethical acceptability of these and other forms of elective ventilation, but also of assessing their professional and political acceptability. This importance relates both to the successful implementation of the individual practices, and to guarding against possible harmful effects in the wider efforts to increase the rates of posthumous organ donation.