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Financial compensation for organ donors.
Jack W Harbell1, Amit K Mathur
1Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation
|February 15, 2019
Summary
Compensating organ donors could increase organ availability. While removing donation-related costs is supported, offering financial incentives requires careful consideration of ethics and public readiness.
Area of Science:
- Transplantation medicine
- Public health policy
- Bioethics
Background:
- Increasing demand for donor organs necessitates strategies to boost organ availability.
- Organ donor compensation is a proposed strategy, with international implementation but ongoing US debate.
- The National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) prohibits organ sales but permits reimbursement for donation-related expenses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review current strategies for increasing organ donor availability through compensation.
- To examine proposals for compensating living donors, including cost reimbursement and financial incentives.
- To assess the ongoing debate in the United States regarding appropriate compensation strategies for organ donation.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature and policy proposals on organ donor compensation.
- Analysis of current legal frameworks, specifically the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA).
- Examination of ethical considerations and public readiness for policy shifts regarding financial incentives for donation.
Main Results:
- Broad support within the transplant community for removing disincentives, such as reimbursing travel, housing, and lost wages for living donors.
- Proposals exist for providing financial incentives to further increase living organ donation.
- Current legal structures allow for disincentive removal, but financial incentives would necessitate significant policy re-evaluation.
Conclusions:
- Reimbursement of expenses for living donors is widely accepted and legally permissible.
- Implementing financial incentives for organ donation requires thorough evaluation of economic, legal, ethical, and societal factors.
- Further research and public discourse are needed to determine the feasibility and impact of financial incentives on organ donation rates and altruism.
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