Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

The aim of this study was to explore experiences of family members of patients confronting brain death diagnosis and the request for organ donation.
A qualitative study was designed focusing on content analysis. Data collection process included 38 unstructured in- depth interviews with relatives of 26 brain death patients who were candidate for organ donation and field notes. Sampling method began as purposive and continued as theoretical until saturation.
Five main themes were extracted from the current dataset that indicated family experiences and perceptions of brain death concept while being informed. The themes were included internal conflict, internal barriers against external realities, imminent sense of loss and grief, surrender and acceptance.
The results showed that facing the diagnosis of brain death for relatives and family members is a condition surrounded by many challenges, ambiguities and conflicts that is become more complicated when emotional responses related to grieving and defensive psychological reactions emerge. So it is recommended before any organ request, at first medical team provide conditions for brain death acceptance. Respecting family members experiences and their perceptions about the situation will resolve their internal ambiguities and conflicts. At this situation requesting organ donation seems to be rational.

One of the important issues in the field of medical ethics is the patient's consent to treatment. This issue has also been addressed in the law, and Islamic legislators have clarified the conditions of gaining patient's consent and approached questions such as legitimacy of treatments or surgical operations, capacity of the person giving consent and so on. In medical ethics, there are different types of consent including expressed, implied and informed consent, while the Islamic Criminal Act concerns itself only with the expression of consent and it is unclear which type of consent the legislators are referring to. The importance of this issue lies in the fact that gaining the patient's consent without meeting the specified legal conditions causes liability for the physician. This article attempts to clarify the legal conditions for gaining patient's consent and at the same time answer questions such as whether the consent mentioned in the Islamic Criminal Act includes various types in medical ethics or not, how failure to meet the legal conditions for gaining consent should be penalized, what the liabilities are in the event that the patient's consent is not gained, and other questions related to the issue