If current organ donation systems don’t adapt, alternative solutions to the global organ shortage will hopefully emerge from biotechnology. Making organ donation work? Organ shortage is costly in terms of human lives, public expenditure and lost productivity from unserved patients. Long-term dialysis, for example, is more expensive than kidney transplantation. Additionally, dialysis patients cannot maintain a regular job unlike successful […]
Futures contracts for donations after death appear to ease major ethical concerns in the debate about payment for human organs. Yet, such proposals are incompatible with current law.
It has been argued for decades that meaningful incentives are needed for substantially more individuals to donate organs. Existing and hypothetical approaches to improve organ supply are outlined below.
Thanks to ever increasing medical capabilities, organ transplantation has become an established life-saving therapy. However, demand for organs exceeds supply because altruistic donations are the only legal source in most countries. This means that in this chain of transactions the original supplier, the organ donor, must not profit.