Summary: Migrants represent a large and diverse population globally that includes international
refugees, stateless persons, expatriate workers, and more. Many migrants face significant
barriers in accessing health care, especially scarce and costly resources such as
dialysis and kidney transplantation. Improving equity of access to these kidney replacement
therapies for migrant populations may present a range of complex ethical dilemmas,
particularly in the setting of crises and when considering the use of residency status
and citizenship as eligibility criteria for access to treatment. In this article,
we discuss ethical obligations to provide kidney care for migrants, the implications
of the self-sufficiency concept with regard to access to deceased donation and transplantation,
factors that may influence evaluation of the risks and benefits of transplantation
for migrants with insecure access to care, and the vulnerability of migrants to organ
trafficking. We also present a set of general recommendations to assist in preventing
and managing ethical dilemmas when making decisions about policy or practice regarding
kidney care for migrants.
Keywords
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Published online: January 04, 2023
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