INTernational Ethical Guidance for Research Involving deceased donation and Transplantation activitY (INTEGRITY)

The INTEGRITY Project, led by the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT) in partnership with the International Society for Organ Donation Professionals (ISODP) and the Transplantation Society (TTS), aims to develop an international framework to ethically guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of research involving deceased donation and transplantation activities.

What are the INTEGRITY Guidelines?

The European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), in partnership with the International Society for Organ Donation Professionals (ISODP) and The Transplantation Society (TTS), is proud to announce the publication of the INTEGRITY Guidelines in Transplant International.

The INTEGRITY Project was initiated by ESOT with the aim of developing the first international ethical guidelines for research that intersects with deceased donation for transplantation. To learn about the development of the guidelines, please read the report of the project that is freely available from Transplant International . The report includes a summary of the guidelines and a copy of the principles that comprise the guidelines. To access the report, click here: https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/transplant-international/articles/10.3389/ti.2026.17151/full

To download and read a plain language summary of the Guidelines, please click the relevant link below. Please note that this summary will be made available in several languages.

• English – Plain language summary (forthcoming soon!)

You will be able to download the full text of the INTEGRITY Guidelines in several languages via the links below. The Guidelines comprise several sections, including a Preamble which defines their scope and purpose, a Glossary that defines key terms, and a set of eight core principles which provide the foundation for a series of subsidiary principles. The Guidelines are intended to be adapted for use in the local setting and applied in conjunction with relevant ethical guidance for clinical practice in donation and transplant as well as relevant ethical guidance for human research.

• English – The INTEGRITY Guidelines 
• Arabic – The INTEGRITY Guidelines (forthcoming soon!)
• Chinese – The INTEGRITY Guidelines (forthcoming soon!)
• French– The INTEGRITY Guidelines (forthcoming soon!)
• Japanese – The INTEGRITY Guidelines (forthcoming soon!)
• Portuguese – The INTEGRITY Guidelines (forthcoming soon!)
• Spanish – The INTEGRITY Guidelines (forthcoming soon!)

If you would like a copy of the Guidelines or plain language summary in a language that is not currently listed, please contact the INTEGRITY Project team using the contact information at the bottom of this page.

Next steps for the INTEGRITY Project

The INTEGRITY Project team is currently working on the development of a series of papers that will explain in more depth the ethical considerations addressed in the Guidelines, using case examples to illustrate how the Guidelines may be interpreted and applied in a range of research settings. The team is also working on the development of more detailed ethical guidance to support the collection and use of data relating to deceased donors in research.

If you or your organisation are interested in learning more about the INTEGRITY Guidelines, including how they might be adapted for use in your local setting, please get in touch with the INTEGRITY Project team. The team would be delighted to discuss potential opportunities to support training and education or development of resources adapted for use in particular settings. The team welcomes invitations to contribute to conferences, workshops or training events that will support the adoption and implementation of the Guidelines.

The team is also keen to support the dissemination of the Guidelines around the world and encourages efforts to share the Guidelines with relevant stakeholders, including national Research Ethics committees, Organ and Tissue Donation agencies, Transplantation societies and more. For advice on how you can assist with these efforts, please get in touch.

Contact the INTEGRITY Project Team

Email the project lead, Dominique Martin, at: bioethics@deakin.edu.au

Acknowledgements:

The INTEGRITY Project Team gratefully acknowledges the individuals and organisations who participated in the 2025 public consultation on the draft guidelines, together with everyone who participated in or supported the workshops in Melbourne, London and Kyoto, and those who assisted with translations of the draft guidelines: Ahmed Akl, Juntaro Ashikari, Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, Riadh Fadhil, Marisa Herson,  Wenshi Jiang, Matthieu Le Dorze, Devi Mey, Simona Negrini, and Sibele Schuantes. We also thank Ketevan Rukhadze from ESOT for her administrative support of the project. Finally, we are grateful to everyone who has assisted with translations of the final guidelines – those individuals are acknowledged in the relevant documents accessible above.

Project Team

Core members

Dominique Martin, Australia (Chair)

Ali Abbasi, USA

Riadh Fadhil, Qatar

John Forsythe, United Kingdom

Matthieu Le Dorze, France

Jayme Locke, USA

Elmi Muller, South Africa

Gabriel Oniscu, Sweden

Helen Opdam, Australia

Karen Rockell, United Kingdom

Marion Siebelink, Netherlands

Shih-Ning Then, Australia

Emma Tumilty, USA

Collaborators 

• Juntaro Ashikari, Japan
• Pacifico Calderon, Philippines
• Elena Cavazzoni, Australia
• Celeste De Vaal, South Africa
• Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, Spain
• Rosalie Grivell, Australia
• Daniel Harvey, United Kingdom
• Marisa Herson, Australia
• Alison Hodak, Australia
• Georgina Irish, Australia
• Victoria Jennings, Australia
• Wenshi Jiang, China
• Marta Lopez Fraga, France
• Heather Machin, Australia
• Francisco Martinez, Mexico
• Maria Victoria Martinez Lopez, Spain
• Olivia Ngan, Hong Kong
• Jeff Orlowski, USA
• Brendan Parent, USA
• Rebecca Pentz, USA
• Alicia Perez-Blanco, Spain
• Rizmina Rilwan, Sri Lanka
• Sibele Schuantes, Sweden
• David Thomson, South Africa
• Sandra Venter, South Africa
• Matthew Weiss, Canada
• Matthew Wellberry-Smith, United Kingdom