State Incentives to Promote Organ Donation: Can a System of Rewarded Gifting Ease the Organ Shortage?

Presented by Dr. M茅lanie Mader, Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Group on Health and Law.

Lunch will be served.

Abstract

Organ transplantation is a very successful medical procedure, which聽saves the lives of thousands of patients worldwide every year.聽However, this success is limited by a major problem: a chronic聽shortage of transplantable organs.

In this seminar, we consider the聽medical, social and economic issues raised by transplantation medicine and聽define organ shortage as a public health problem. Based on this聽premise, we present the idea of establishing a public policy to聽promote organ donation within the Swiss legal system.

As part of a聽public policy, the State can use incentives, i.e., regulatory聽instruments to reward organ donation. Considering legal and ethical聽constraints, we show how these incentives can be designed to increase聽organ donation rates without violating the prohibition of organ sales.

This argument leads us to envision several innovative incentives such聽as tax breaks for willing donors; priority status on the waiting list聽for a registered donor should he or she ever need an organ transplant;聽discounts on health insurance premiums; or a rebate on a donor's聽funeral costs. Finally, we discuss examples of States where some of聽these incentives have been adopted.