[Transplantation medicine: a social debate].

Twenty-eight randomly chosen citizens originating from the three linguistic areas of Switzerland discussed transplantation medicine in November 2000. This PubliForum was organised by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Centre for Technology Assessment. The aim was to explore the hopes, fears and emotions raised in the population by this highly sophisticated therapy. After a 2-day hearing of specialists and concerned persons, the citizens wrote a report dealing with the definition of death, the consent for organ harvesting, the criteria for the allocation of donated organs and xenotransplantation research. The panel made a plea for a thorough public debate on these topics. They also stressed that information and transparency are key issues to guarantee that the social and individual needs of the donors, the recipients and their involved relatives will be met.