$5,000 Payments Proposed for Organ Donor Families

A group of transplant doctors and activists has sent a letter to members of Congress urging that federal law be changed to allow incentive payments of up to $5,000 to be made to families who agree to donate the organs of a deceased relative.

The group, led by University of Pittsburgh neurobiology researcher Harold Kyriaz, expressed hope a cash payment would produce an increase in donated organs that might save the lives of some of the 6,000 Americans who die each year on transplant waiting lists.

The proposal would amend a 1984 law prohibiting financial payments for organs to allow a demonstration project, and authorize the incentive payments to be made only by organ procurement organizations participating in a test project overseen by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Under the proposal, organ procurement agencies would approach families after a relative has been pronounced brain dead and offer the money "as a way of saying thank you for giving the gift of life." The money would go to the deceased person's estate.

The plan proposes a flat fee of between $3,000 and $5,000, which would be the same regardless of the donor's age or number of usable organs or tissue. The money would be paid even if doctors are unable to use the organs.

"It's just human nature that if you're getting something, you should give something in return," said Kyriazi. "I wouldn't feel right to just ask for an organ. I would feel like a beggar. I would like to offer some kind of compensation as a way of saying thanks and keeping it at an even exchange level."

But many medical ethicists, doctors and donor family members strongly oppose the idea of offering financial incentives. One called the plan a bad solution that fuels the idea that "If you can pay for it, you can get it."

"It immediately says 'Gee, how much money is someone else's life worth?'" said Dr. Lawrence J. Schneiderman, a medical ethicist at the University of California, San Diego. "It just encourages people to make a deal that's financially rewarding rather than 'this is life and death' and showing respect for the process of health care."

Kyriazi said the cost of the payments, which his group estimates could be around $25 million a year, could be recovered from money saved on medical treatment for patients who currently never get off the waiting lists.

Other Sources: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review