A New Approach to Organ Donation | Raymond Raad | Cato Institute: Commentary

A New Approach to Organ Donation | Raymond Raad | Cato Institute: Commentary: "There are now more than 83,000 people in the U.S. on the waiting list for a kidney. Yet with less than 17,000 transplants done each year, more than 40 percent will die waiting. As bad, transplants are most likely to succeed when they are done early. So as the waiting time increases (now about 5 years), even those lucky enough to get a new kidney do not benefit as much as possible."

"Economics Nobel Laureate Gary Becker and Julio Elias estimated that paying donors $15,000 might erase the shortage. Transplant surgeon Arthur Matas and health policy professor Mark Schnitzler estimate that since dialysis is expensive, paying organ donors would end up saving the government $275,000 per transplant.

Three primary criticisms bedevil the compensation strategy: One, the prospect of payment can be so tempting that it blinds donors to the risks involved; second, it may lead only poor people to donate; third, it may turn altruistic donors away.

But since the practice of compensating for organ donation has been illegal since 1984, the hard data do not exist to figure out which side is right."

"About 15 percent of participants were unwilling to donate for free but willing if offered money. This percentage was the same for poorer and wealthier individuals. Poorer people were more likely to donate when offered money, but they were also more likely to donate without any compensation.

The authors also found that the prospect of payment did not dull people to the risks. Those who faced higher risks if they donated were far less likely to donate than those with lower risks, even if offered $100,000 for a kidney.

Lastly, the prospect of compensation did not alter the likelihood of altruistic donation. The same percentage of people was willing to donate for free when asked before and after the offer of payment.

The study showed that people who are offered compensation for kidney donation are able to think rationally and weigh the pros and cons before making a decision."