The majority of organs transplanted in Poland come from deceased donors. The shortage of organ donors is one of the main factors restraining the development of transplantology. One of the solutions to the problem is popularization of transplants from living donors. Such type of transplantation entails a lot of ethical, psychological, moral and legal issues. In Poland such organs as kidneys and a part of liver are donated by living donors. There is also the possibility to collect a lobe of the lung and parts of pancreas. It is estimated that the risk connected with the collection and transplantation of a part of a liver, a lobe of the lung or a part of pancreas is much higher than in case of a kidney transplant which result from complex surgical technique of the procedure and the after-transplant care. Such operations pose high a risk of dangerous after-operation complications. This thesis presents the problems connected with ethical issues concerning organ transplants from living donors. It contains the characteristics of ethical problems related to kidney transplant from living donors, methods most often applied in Poland as well as the description of issues connected with chain and cross transplantations, which are new in Poland. Also the issue of transplantation of a part of a liver from living donors is discussed, a procedure rarely carried out in Poland and only in exceptional cases. The work also deals with split liver transplantation and domino type.

Key words: organ transplantation, ethical issues, living donors.