Thursday, March 24, 2016

Compensation for donors: crowding in and crowding out, in the Washington Post

The Washington Post reports a recent study  by Dr Tom Peters surveying Americans on their willingness to donate, and how this would be effected by different levels of compensation: What would happen if Americans were paid to donate their kidneys?


"For those already willing to donate to anyone, 63 percent said that the payment would make them even more likely to do it. Of those in the second group, composed of those willing to donate to a restricted group, 60 percent said they would be more likely to consider it. And in the third group that was unwilling to donate, 26 percent said they would reconsider because of the money.

The researchers also found that there were some people who would be more reluctant to donate if money was involved. In the first group 8 percent would be less willing, 9 percent in the second group, and 18 percent in the third group.

"Thus," the researchers concluded, "payment motivated more US voters to positively consider donor nephrectomy rather than to reject the notion of donating a kidney."
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HT: Frank McCormick, Philip Held

1 comment:

John Hodges said...

"Compensation for donors" is internally contradictory. Compensation for organ sellers, whether direct or via brokers, is not internal contradictory, just the reality of the topic. Seems likely the acceptance would change if the correct labels were used...