Should people who commit themselves to organ donation be granted preferred status to receive organ transplants?

Granting preferred status for transplantation to people who commit themselves to posthumous organ donation is an intriguing proposal designed to increase the pool of cadaveric organ donors. Under one version of this plan, all competent adults who had previously consented to having their organs removed and transplanted upon their deaths would be given priority to receive organs, should they ever need them, over potential recipients of equal need who had not agreed to donate. To see if this plan would be acceptable to the public, I contracted Harris Interactive to conduct a national telephone survey about this issue. One thousand fourteen adults living in the United States were queried. Fifty-three percent of the respondents thought that people who agree to donate their organs after death should be granted priority to receive cadaveric organ transplants over those who do not agree to donate. Only 30% of the respondents would definitely oppose this plan. These data suggest that a pilot study of preferred status should be considered.