Volume 71 Number 4 September 2004	back to contents

Address all correspondence to Lewis Burrows, M.D., 201 East 17th Street, Apt. 27H, New York, NY 10003; E-mail: Rockylew@msn.com.

Adapted from a presentation at the Issues in Medical Ethics 2001 Conference on “Medicine, Money, and Morals” at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY on November 2, 2001, and updated as of February 2004.

ABSTRACT
The need for transplant organs has far outstripped the supply of available cadaveric organs. Hundreds of people on waiting lists, who could be saved by transplantation, die each year. This severe shortage has justified the extension of transplantation to the use of living donors, but there are still not enough organs to meet the need. This paper discusses the justification for changing policies in order to encourage organ donation. It presents reasons for allowing payments to be made to families that donate cadaveric organs. It also presents reasons for allowing payments to be made to living donors, and guidelines for how an ideal policy could be structured.

KEY WORDS
Selling, payments, organs, transplant, financial remuneration, presumed consent, altruism.