News From Transplant Week of June 23, 2002 / Vol. 3 No. 25

 

Surgeons Oppose Significant Monetary Incentives for Organ Donation
 

 

A group of transplant surgeons led by Dr. Francis L. Delmonico, head of kidney transplants at Massachusetts General Hospital, has joined the debate over financial incentives for organ donors in a position paper in the current New England Journal of Medicine.

The paper backs continuation of the U.S. prohibition of payment for organs in effect since 1984, but suggests that the federal government encourage organ donation in other ways ranging from Congressional medals for living donors to funeral assistance to families of dead donors.

The paper was published in the prestigious medical journal only two days after a vote by the American Medical Association to support studying whether financial incentives have the potential to increase cadaver donation (see related Transplant Week story).

In their paper, Delmonico and his colleagues support:
  • Awarding Congressional "donor medals of honor" to living organ donors, and to the families of deceased donors;
  • Providing a $300 reimbursement for funeral expenses to families of donors, a move also endorsed earlier this year by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons; and
  • Offering a national plan of life and disability insurance for living donors, given that their act "is not a risk-free procedure."

But the authors oppose proposals that more explicitly tie monetary incentives to donations, including a $10,000 "Gift of Life Tax Credit" proposed by Rep. James Hansen (R-UT) and a $2,500 tax refund proposed by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).

Both proposals, according to the authors, "place an arbitrary monetary value on an organ and in reality are merely forms of payment."

Other sources:New England Journal of Medicine