Candidate selection criteria for living donor liver transplantation

Living donor liver transplantation is a new surgical technique that challenges the assumptions of the current system for allocation of livers for transplantation. Arguments based on justice in the setting of scarcity, and the consequent need for triage, do not apply. The risk to the living donor, an order of magnitude higher than that for kidney donation, raises different ethical concerns related to autonomy, what constitutes an acceptable risk-benefit equation, and who is to decide.