A Capitalist Fix for the Organ Shortage
David J. Undis
November 16, 2005
Despite the federal ban on buying or selling human organs, there is a legal free-market solution to the organ shortage. You can insure against your future need for an organ by filling out a form on the internet. It?s free, and you?ll also help reduce the organ shortage and save lives in the process.
More than 6,600 Americans died last year waiting for an organ transplant, and the shortage of organs gets larger every year. If you want to increase your chances of getting a transplant should you ever need one, you can either exercise a little personal responsibility or hope that the federal government will take care of you. Betting on Uncle Sam is a very risky proposition. More than half the people on the transplant waiting list will die before they get an organ.
A new alternative that doesn?t wait on Washington, called LifeSharers, is actually an old idea made practical by the internet. It?s the idea of an ?organ club?. Dr. Robert Sade (a transplant surgeon at the Medical University of South Carolina) and Dr. Alexander Tabarrok (Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University) are among those who have proposed variations of this idea. Members agree to donate their organs when they die, but they give fellow members ?first dibs? on them. Non-members can have a member?s organs if no member who is a suitable match for them wants them.
Directing your donation first to other members of your club rewards membership in the club and creates an incentive for others to join. This incentive is the key to reducing the national organ shortage and saving lives. To see how powerful the incentive to become an organ donor can be, imagine what it will be like when LifeSharers has a million members. You?ll be crazy not to join if you think you?ll ever need an organ. By not joining, you?ll be reducing your access to a million hearts, a million livers, two million kidneys, two million lungs, two million corneas, and more. Let?s face it ? if only organ donors could receive organs, just about everybody would be a donor. It?s a classic example of ?the network effect.?
LifeSharers is good for all transplant constituencies ? donors, recipients, the medical profession, and the community. Everyone benefits from its success, but LifeSharers is not without its critics. They say it isn?t fair to give committed organ donors a preference when allocating transplantable organs.
This argument against LifeSharers is based on a socialist definition of fairness that the transplant authorities use. They think organs should be allocated ?to each according to his need? without regard to willingness to give. LifeSharers members think those who have committed to donate their own organs deserve an allocation preference. Reasonable people can disagree about the abstract meaning of fairness. But in the real world rewarding organ donors creates more of them, and that saves lives. People who haven?t agreed to donate their organs get about 70% of the transplants in this country. That?s one of the reasons the organ shortage is so severe.
It?s time to stop throwing the organ shortage issue into the air hoping that Washington will catch it. You can reduce the organ shortage and save lives by filling out a form at http://www.lifesharers.org. Membership is free and open to all. Do it today. Who knows, the next life you save may be your own.
More than 6,600 Americans died last year waiting for an organ transplant, and the shortage of organs gets larger every year. If you want to increase your chances of getting a transplant should you ever need one, you can either exercise a little personal responsibility or hope that the federal government will take care of you. Betting on Uncle Sam is a very risky proposition. More than half the people on the transplant waiting list will die before they get an organ.
A new alternative that doesn?t wait on Washington, called LifeSharers, is actually an old idea made practical by the internet. It?s the idea of an ?organ club?. Dr. Robert Sade (a transplant surgeon at the Medical University of South Carolina) and Dr. Alexander Tabarrok (Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University) are among those who have proposed variations of this idea. Members agree to donate their organs when they die, but they give fellow members ?first dibs? on them. Non-members can have a member?s organs if no member who is a suitable match for them wants them.
Directing your donation first to other members of your club rewards membership in the club and creates an incentive for others to join. This incentive is the key to reducing the national organ shortage and saving lives. To see how powerful the incentive to become an organ donor can be, imagine what it will be like when LifeSharers has a million members. You?ll be crazy not to join if you think you?ll ever need an organ. By not joining, you?ll be reducing your access to a million hearts, a million livers, two million kidneys, two million lungs, two million corneas, and more. Let?s face it ? if only organ donors could receive organs, just about everybody would be a donor. It?s a classic example of ?the network effect.?
LifeSharers is good for all transplant constituencies ? donors, recipients, the medical profession, and the community. Everyone benefits from its success, but LifeSharers is not without its critics. They say it isn?t fair to give committed organ donors a preference when allocating transplantable organs.
This argument against LifeSharers is based on a socialist definition of fairness that the transplant authorities use. They think organs should be allocated ?to each according to his need? without regard to willingness to give. LifeSharers members think those who have committed to donate their own organs deserve an allocation preference. Reasonable people can disagree about the abstract meaning of fairness. But in the real world rewarding organ donors creates more of them, and that saves lives. People who haven?t agreed to donate their organs get about 70% of the transplants in this country. That?s one of the reasons the organ shortage is so severe.
It?s time to stop throwing the organ shortage issue into the air hoping that Washington will catch it. You can reduce the organ shortage and save lives by filling out a form at http://www.lifesharers.org. Membership is free and open to all. Do it today. Who knows, the next life you save may be your own.
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