A Life‐​Saving Approach to Transplantable Organs

Raymond Raad, physician and coauthor of the Cato study, “Bending the Productivity Curve: Why America Leads the World in Medical Innovation," has an oped at the Daily Caller arguing that the United States could save thousands of lives per year by allowing individuals (or insurance companies, or the government) to pay people who agree to give their organs to patients who need them.

Raad cites the experience of Iran, which has eliminated its waiting list for transplantable organs. (The United States has 83,000 people waiting for kidneys alone. Forty percent will die waiting, and those who do receive a kidney die sooner because their health deteriorates while waiting.) He also cites the three main criticisms of compensating donors/sellers -- "One, the prospect of payment can be so tempting that it blinds donors to the risks involved; second, it may lead only poor people to donate; third, it may turn altruistic donors away" -- and shows that recent polling data contradicts all three.

Raad concludes:

Since this is the best data we have, and with 5,000 people expected to die this year on the waiting list, we owe ourselves at least a geographically limited experiment in monetary incentives for kidneys.

For more on how eliminating this government-imposed price controls would save lives, read Arthur Matas' Cato study, "A Gift of Life Deserves Compensation: How to Increase Living Kidney Donation with Realistic Incentives," and Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care, and How to Free It.