Living liver donation should be available on the UK National Health Service, researchers suggest, but not without full public debate.

One way of bridging the gap between those in need of a liver transplant and the supply of donors is to use a living donor. A section of liver equivalent to one per cent of the recipients body weight is all that's needed and the donor's liver regenerates completely within a year.

Living liver donation is available in the US and in parts of Europe but has not yet been introduced to Britain under the National Health Service. Researchers have opened a debate in the British Medical Journal on this issue - arguing that living liver donation could come to Britain and patients dying of liver failure could benefit.

But, they caution, a full public debate on the issue is needed. The risks to the donor are not negligible - a 40 to 60 per cent chance of some complications and a death rate of 0.5 to one per cent. In contrast, living kidney donation is safer, with a death rate of just 0.03 per cent and a complication rate of ten per cent. Full safeguards to the donor - who should never be pressurized into making this gift - must be in place before living liver donation comes to the National Health Service.

Source

British Medical Journal 20th September 2003