School choice in Britain

A story in the Telegraph appears to report the remarkable fact that some schools in Britain are more popular than others, and are over-demanded: School admissions: half lose out in some areas
"Half of children in some areas have been rejected from their preferred secondary school amid fierce competition for the most sought-after places. "
...
"In Birmingham, only two-third of children gained places in their preferred school, a fall compared with last year.
The squeeze on places has led some over-subscribed schools to run controversial “lotteries” in which names are effectively picked from a hat.
The system is employed to stop middle-class parents jumping the queue for the best schools by buying homes in the catchment area.
Lotteries are believed to be used in at least one school in a third of local authorities. Hertfordshire council told the Telegraph yesterday that seven schools had employed the system.
Michael Gove, shadow schools secretary, said: “Unfortunately too often too many parents don’t get the school they want. The reality is that it is only the rich who can guarantee the kind of education they want for their children.” "

Congressional briefing on market design

CONSORTIUM OF SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATIONS

You are invited to a Congressional Briefing on

“Better Living through Economics: How Fundamental Economic Research Improves People’s Lives”
March 15, 2010, 12:00-1:30

B338 Rayburn House Office Building

Better Living Through Economics (Harvard University Press 2010) illustrates the fundamental contributions of economic research to important public policy decisions through twelve case studies. A panel of distinguished scholars will discuss some of these examples of how basic economic research by academic economists has improved people’s lives and continues to impact policy decisions.

Speakers:

Brigitte Madrian, Harvard Kennedy School: “More Saving and Better Retirements.”

Lawrence Ausubel, University of Maryland, “The Greatest Auction in History: Raising Billions from the Communications Spectrum”

Alvin Roth, Harvard University, “Improved Markets for Doctors, Organ Transplants and School Choice”

John Siegfried, Vanderbilt University, “Cheaper Airfares, Welfare Reform and an All-Volunteer Military”

Sponsored by: The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)
A box lunch will be served. This is a widely attended event!
Positive RSVPs to cossa@cossa.org or 202/842-3525.

Elliott Spitzer on government’s role in the market

Government’s proper role in the market, in the Boston Review.

Spitzer writes from the point of view of a former Attorney General of New York (as opposed to real estate heir, former Governor, or Greek tragedian).

"To sum up, I want to leave you with ten points:
• Only government can enforce integrity and transparency in the marketplace; self-regulation is a failure.
• Only government can take necessary steps to overcome market failures, such as negative externalities or monopoly power.
• Only government can act to preserve certain core values in the market, such as prohibitions on discrimination.
• Too-big-to-fail is too-big-not-to-fail.
• We’re suffering from the Peter Principle on Steroids, and it will get us into deeper trouble.
• Taxpayers have been getting the short end of the stick in everything we’ve been doing. The Treasury Department is not negotiating for us.
• Risk is real, and no complex scheme of financial instruments can make it go away.
• We have de-leveraged the wrong way, by socializing risks and privatizing benefits. The government has accepted all the debt obligations of the private sector, and taxpayers now owe this money.
• The only way to reform corporate governance is to get the owners—the shareholders—of companies involved and actually paying attention.
• All of this is very tough: being able to diagnose a problem is a whole lot easier than mustering the will to fix it. "

Wikis

My busy sometimes co-blogger Peter writes:


"I was just reading about the company "Wikia," which is owned by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Interestingly, he #2 most active wiki is an academic jobs info wiki:

http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Humanities_and_Social_Science_Postdocs_2009-2010

(The most active wiki is lostpedia, the wiki about the TV Series LOST)

Law faculty recruitment

The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) helps organize law faculty recruitment, with services including a database of candidates called the Faculty Appointments Register, a job advertisement service called the Placement Bulletin, and a dedicated Faculty Recruitment Conference (different from the annual meeting of the organization), which this year took place Nov 5-7.


Here's an account of the experience from a survivor: One Candidate's Experience in the AALS Hiring Process

"As you can imagine, my experience at the hiring conference mainly consisted of running up and down staircases, from one building to the next and back again. I scheduled 15 interviews on Friday and began my day with seven back-to-back. My eight years of competitive speech tournaments, which also consisted of running from room to room talking all day long, were good preparation. I think the best advice that I got about the hiring conference was from Dean Blake Morant, who advised the candidates at an opening session to “be our most authentic selves” and “bring up the energy level in the room” during each interview. "
...
"One of the most interesting and craze-inducing aspects of the hiring process was the law school hiring discussion on Prawfs Blawg. The four threads, which began on August 19th, have received well over 1300 comments. I admit that I read the threads nearly every day in the weeks before and after the hiring conference. I’m not sure that I know why, except that I felt that I was part of a large anonymous community of people who were just as freaked out and insecure as I was. I suppose its better to be in such a community of such people than be alone.
If I have learned anything from this process, it is that nobody really knows the secret to success and, in fact, the process is so individualized to particular hiring committees in a particular year at a particular school, that there likely is no secret. This is extremely frustrating to wanna-be law professors because we are analytical people. We (sometimes desperately) want to know the rules and the facts so that we can weigh our odds and predict our futures.
One big gaping hole getting in the way of our analysis is the lack of data on the members of the candidate pool. A few schools do a great job advising their alumni and keeping track of those in the process (shout out to Akiba Covitz!). Most don’t, and nobody aggregates that data. It appears that AALS doesn’t release it either (other than to the schools in the FAR forms themselves). So the candidates are left to guess who their competition is and how they stack up."


HT: faculty lounge

Baby Markets

I've just ordered this new book (only in part to find out why the ratio of female to male authors is drawn from such a different distribution than most discussions of market design and repugnance...):

Baby Markets
Money and the New Politics of Creating Families
Edited by Michele Bratcher Goodwin
University of Minnesota
Published February 2010
View Table of Contents as PDF (94KB) Baby Markets
Cambridge University Press
9780521513739

Contents
PART ONE. WHAT MAKES A MARKET? EFFICIENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND RELIABILITY OR GETTING THE BABIES WE WANT

1 Baby Markets
Michele Bratcher Goodwin

2 The Upside of Baby Markets
Martha Ertman

3 Price and Pretense in the Baby Market
Kimberly D. Krawiec

4 Bringing Feminist Fundamentalism to U.S. Baby Markets
Mary Anne Case

5 Producing Kinship through the Marketplaces of Transnational Adoption
Sara Dorow

PART TWO. SPACE AND PLACE: REPRODUCING AND REFRAMING SOCIAL NORMS OF RACE, CLASS, GENDER, AND OTHERNESS

6 Adoption Laws and Practices: Serving Whose Interests?
Ruth-Arlene W. Howe

7 International Adoption: The Human Rights Issues
Elizabeth Bartholet

8 Heterosexuality as a Prenatal Social Problem: Why Parents and Courts Have a Taste for Heterosexuality
José Gabilondo

9 Transracial Adoption of Black Children: An Economic Analysis
Mary Eschelbach Hansen and Daniel Pollack

PART THREE.SPECTRUMS AND DISCOURSES: RIGHTS, REGULATIONS, AND CHOICE

10 Reproducing Dreams
Naomi Cahn

11 Why Do Parents Have Rights?: The Problem of Kinship in Liberal Thought
Maggie Gallagher


12 Free Markets, Free Choice?: A Market Approach to Reproductive Rights
Debora L. Spar

13 Commerce and Regulation in the Assisted Reproduction Industry
John A. Robertson

14 Ethics within Markets or a Market for Ethics?: Can Disclosure of Sperm Donor Identity Be Effectively Mandated?
June Carbone and Paige Gottheim

PART FOUR.THE ETHICS OF BABY AND EMBRYO MARKETS

15 Egg Donation for Research and Reproduction: The Compensation Conundrum
Nanette R. Elster

16 Eggs, Nests, and Stem Cells
Lisa C. Ikemoto

17 Where Stem Cell Research Meets Abortion Politics: Limits on Buying and Selling Human Oocytes
Michelle Oberman, Leslie Wolf, and Patti Zettler

PART FIVE.TENUOUS GROUNDS AND BABY TABOOS

18 Risky Exchanges
Viviana A. Zelizer

19 Giving In to Baby Markets
Sonia Suter

Concluding Thoughts
Michele Bratcher Goodwin


HT: Kim Krawiec

Kidney exchange news from Britain

David Manlove writes:

Dear Al,

I just wanted to pass on some KE news: the first 3-way kidney exchange in the UK has just been announced:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8552162.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8554930.stm
http://www.hta.gov.uk/newsandevents/htanews.cfm/837-First-pooled-transplants-performed-in-the-UK.html

Also I've been successful with a grant proposal to NHS Blood and Transplant and they will be funding us (i.e., me and former PhD student Gregg O'Malley; hopefully Peter Biro will be involved too) to work for a year on delivering a software package to enable them to carry out the quarterly matching runs for themselves, without having to send the data to us. The NHSBT collaboration builds on the work we've been doing together over the last 3 or so years (we've been involved in the quarterly matching runs since July 2008): http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/about_transplants/organ_allocation/kidney_(renal)/living_donation/paired_donation_matching_scheme.jsp.

Our paper describing some aspects of this work appeared in the new journal Discrete Mathematics, Algorithms and Applications (vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 499-517, 2009, here. Also here are some slides from a talk I gave at a workshop in Bristol last year: http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/Research/Algorithms/BAD09/Talks/BAD09-Manlove.pdf. I will be giving an updated version at a workshop on Matching Theory and Mechanism Design organised by Elena Inarra in Oxford next Tuesday.

Hopefully NHSBT will be bringing in domino paired chains triggered by altruistic donors in the near future - we are still trying to convince them of the merits of never ending altruistic chains!

Best regards,
David
The University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401

Reading, writing and apologizing about repugnant transactions: Repugnance at multiple levels

A story in Al Jazeera concerns conflicting views of repugnant transactions--things that some people think other people shouldn't do--on multiple levels. The story concerns judicial flogging of women for adultery in Malaysia, a newspaper editorial against that practice by a non-Muslim editor, a government threat to close the newspaper for publishing the editorial, and a religious ruling that Muslims should not read the editorial.

The Al Jazeera story is here: Malaysia - Caning the messenger?

The Malaysian newspaper, The Star, has withdrawn the editorial from its website, but the Al Jazeera story concludes with this paragraph containing a link to a copy of the offending editorial:

"For people who want to make up their own mind about the issue, the text is still available here, but here's a clear warning, this article has already been deemed unacceptable by some Muslims. Those who agree with Mais - that non-Muslims should not comment on matters pertaining to shariah law - are strongly advised not to follow the link."

The multiple levels of repugnance remind me of another recent story in the news: Danish newspaper provokes uproar with apology over Muhammad cartoon
"A Danish newspaper was accused yesterday of betraying the freedom of the press after it apologised to Muslims for offence caused by its reprinting a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban.
Politiken, a leading Danish newspaper, had printed the cartoon as a gesture of solidarity after three people were arrested for planning to kill the cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard. "

I guess I'll have to add reading and apologizing to my growing list of repugnant transactions, which already included adultery and publishing.

"Tissue rights"

Who has the rights to a cell line created from cancerous tissue? The NY Times reviews the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (Crown Publishers), by the journalist Rebecca Skloot.

A Lasting Gift to Medicine That Wasn’t Really a Gift

"The notion of “tissue rights” has inspired a new category of activists. The question that comes up repeatedly is, if scientists or companies can commercialize a patient’s cells or tissues, doesn’t that patient, as provider of the raw material, deserve a say about it and maybe a share of any profits that result? Fewer people these days may be willing to take no for an answer. "

Price gouging and proposed legal remedies

Some more interesting posts on price gouging from Michael Giberson at Knowledge Problem :

A private right of action on price gouging and Price gouging in Haiti.

Embryo exchange in Georgia

It's not what it sounds like, and it doesn't have tax consequences:

Embryo Exchanges and Adoption Tax Credits by
Sarah B. Lawsky and Naomi Cahn

Abstract: The “Option of Adoption Act,” a Georgia law that was introduced by a staunchly anti-abortion Georgia state representative, establishes procedures for genetic donors to relinquish their rights to embryos before birth and permits, but does not require, embryo recipients to petition a court for recognition that they are the legal parents of a child born to them as a result of an embryo transfer. This article clears up what seems to be widespread confusion about a fairly straightforward question of tax law related to such embryo “adoptions.” Notwithstanding various sources' claims to the contrary, neither a Georgia adoption tax credit nor a federal adoption tax credit is available for “adopting” an embryo.

Matching for adoption

"In most cases, a successful domestic adoption is the result of a match between a birth mother (BMO hereafter) who seeks to relinquish her child, and prospective adoptive parents (PAPs hereafter). The underlying matching process involves a bilateral search characterized by several layers of mediation: Typically, adoption agencies represent BMOs, while PAPs work vis-à-vis adoption agencies, lawyers, or facilitators. In this paper, we exploit the unique nature of a new data set documenting the operations of an adoption facilitator. We analyze the preferences of PAPs over the attributes of babies relinquished for adoption, the BMOs’ choices, and the factors that determine ultimate outcomes (i.e., a successful adoption, a decision to parent by the BMO, or the child’s placement in foster care).

That is from the paper Gender and Racial Biases: Evidence from Child Adoption, by Mariagiovanna Baccara , Allan Collard-Wexler, Leonardo Felli , and Leeat Yariv.

The paper has a market design aspect:
"Despite the social value of a well-functioning matching process that delivers suitable parents to every child, adoption has not received much attention by the economics literature. Our analysis of parents’ preferences, combined with the identification of factors facilitating an ultimate match, opens the door to policy interventions aimed at increasing the efficiency of this process."

Same sex marriage in Mexico City: starting today

Gay Marriage Puts Mexico City at Center of Debate : "A new Mexico City law goes into effect March 4 that will allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, propelling the city to the forefront of the global gay rights movement."
The law seems to have survived the expected judicial challenge: Mexico's Supreme Court Upholds Gay Marriage Law , and here's a nice story about the (ongoing) debate in yesterday's Washington Post, With same-sex marriage law, Mexico City becomes battleground in culture wars

Here are my other posts on same sex marriage, which strikes me as an excellent example of how views and laws can change regarding repugnant transactions.

Same sex marriage in Washington D.C., starting yesterday

Gay Marriage Is Now Legal in Washington
"Gay-rights advocates hailed the day as a milestone for equal rights and a symbolic victory as same-sex marriage became legal in the nation’s capital.
Washington is now the sixth place in the nation where same-sex marriages can take place. Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont also issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Despite failing in court, opponents of the law vowed to fight another day. "

And here is the failure in court:
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 09A807
HARRY R. JACKSON ET AL. v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BOARD OF ELECTIONS AND ETHICS ET AL. ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[March 2, 2010] CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS, Circuit Justice.

"Petitioners in this case are Washington D. C. voters who would like to subject the District of Columbia’s ReligiousFreedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 to a public referendum before it goes into effect... Without addressing the merits of petitioners’ underlying claim, however, I conclude that a stay is not warranted. "

Same sex unions in the Anglican church

Across the pond: Anglican bishops back end to ban on gay civil partnerships in church "Gay couples could soon be allowed to “marry” in church after a decision by Anglican bishops and other clergy to support a relaxation of the ban. Senior bishops in the Lords have told The Times that they will support an amendment to the Equality Bill next month that will lift the ban on civil partnership ceremonies in religious premises. The amendment would remove the legislative prohibition on blessings of homosexual couples and open the door to the registration of civil partnerships in churches, synagogues, mosques and all other religious premises." ... "The Church of England, which along with the wider Anglican Communion is divided over gay ordinations and same-sex blessings, will maintain its official ban. But if the legislative prohibition is lifted, as seems likely, the Church’s own ban is likely to be ignored by some clergy." ... "The Quakers have called for the law to be changed to give same-sex partners the same status in their ceremonies as heterosexual couples. They joined forces with Liberal Judaism and the Unitarians to support an amendment to the Equality Bill giving religious organisations the freedom to register civil partnerships. Lord Alli’s amendment would remove the bar in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 on religious premises being used for civil partnerships — and also the prohibition on religious language being used in such ceremonies. This would in effect end any remaining distinction between civil partnerships and marriage and increase the pressure on the established Church to take a more liberal line on same-sex relationships. It would also deepen the schism in the Anglican Communion over gay blessings and gay ordination."

Academic job markets in the Humanities

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has issued a new report as a result of a set of surveys of Humanities departments. Here is the announcement:

"Challenges to Humanities Revealed in New Survey
The humanities continue to play a core role in higher education and student interest is strong, but to meet the demand, four-year colleges and universities are increasingly relying on a part-time, untenured workforce. Those are among the findings from the Humanities Departmental Survey. The survey includes data collected from English, foreign language, history, history of science, art history, linguistics, and religion departments at approximately 1,400 colleges and universities. It is the first comprehensive survey to provide general cross-disciplinary data on humanities departments. "

"Across the humanities, but especially in English and combined English/foreign language departments, the professoriate at four-year colleges and universities is evolving into a part-time workforce. During the 2006-2007 academic year, only 38 percent of faculty members in these departments were tenured. English departments had the greatest proportion of non-tenure-track faculty (49 percent)."

HT: Paul Karoff

Assisted suicide, the debate continues in England and Switzerland

Assisted suicide, a widely repugnant transaction, continues to be the subject of public discussion in England. The Telegraph reports a new poll: Assisted suicide: 4 in 5 say do not prosecute.

"The public’s support for a change in the law on assisted suicide and euthanasia was uncovered by the YouGov poll following a succession of high profile court cases.
Three quarters of those polled said the law should be amended to allow assisted suicide, a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison. "...

"Sir Terry Pratchett, the author who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, is due to deliver a lecture in which he will call for assisted suicide "tribunals" that would give the terminally ill permission to end their lives. In the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, he will offer himself as a test case for just such a tribunal... Sir Terry, who prefers the term "assisted death", will say that permission to end his life will make each day more precious, and that doctors should not be forced to help the terminally ill to die. ... "If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice." "

The WSJ has an article about the Swiss assisted suicide clinic Dignitas, and the debate going on in Switzerland about the the laws governing assisted suicide:
Assisted-Suicide Pioneer Stirs a Legal Backlash

"From the start, Mr. Minelli has kicked up controversy for his willingness to help foreigners die. Most groups in Switzerland don't assist foreigners. Dignitas only helps foreigners. The number of foreigners Dignitas helps each year—132 in 2007, compared to 91 in 2003—has increasingly left the Swiss uncomfortable with the country's growing reputation for "suicide tourism." As of the end of last year, Dignitas had helped a total of 1,046 people to commit suicide. "...

"Under Swiss law, it is illegal for a person to assist a suicide for their own "selfish" reasons. But there are otherwise no limits on helping someone to die. By contrast, most countries allowing assisted suicide require the person to be terminally ill or demand that a doctor assist the suicide. Switzerland is also the only country permitting right-to-die organizations to help foreigners die.
"At the moment, there is really no law," says Andreas Brunner, a Zurich prosecutor who has fought for greater restrictions on right-to-die organizations, particularly Dignitas. "You have to have some rules and standards. The worst solution is what we have now."
As medical advances prolong lives even for the seriously ill, the debate over assisted suicide is surging elsewhere.
In Oregon—the one state in the U.S. where assisted suicide is legal—doctors are allowed to help only state residents who are expected to die within six months.
The U.K., which has restrictive laws on euthanasia, was forced in a court case last fall to clarify whether it would prosecute Britons who help family members make the trip to Switzerland to die. (It won't.) Luxembourg legalized euthanasia last year. Activists in Belgium and the Netherlands are pushing to broaden the group of patients who can avail themselves of assisted suicide to the elderly, minors and chronically ill. "...

"In 2008, when neighbors' complaints forced Dignitas out of the rented apartment it had long used for suicides, Zurich city officials refused permission for a new venue.
So, Mr. Minelli organized suicides in cars, a hotel room and his own home, drawing the ire of local officials. For a time, he was forced to use the industrial site criticized by Mr. Gall. "Someone who is used to a five-star hotel can't come to Dignitas and expect the same," Mr. Minelli says.
The Zurich prosecutor's office spoke with family members who complained about the 10,000-Swiss-franc fee Mr. Minelli charges people to die, but found insufficient grounds to open an inquiry. One rival right-to-die organization asks for nothing beyond a 45-Swiss-franc membership fee, while another charges 4,000 Swiss francs. Mr. Minelli says the fee helps with his legal and lobbying expenses. "...

"Mr. Minelli argues that making assisted suicide available removes a taboo around suicide, helping people who want to kill themselves open a dialogue and seek help. About 70% of people who get the green light from Dignitas for an assisted suicide never contact the group again, proving the palliative effect of knowing help is available, he says. "
...
"A vote is planned in March on a bill that would sharply restrict the activities of right-to-die organizations. For instance, two doctors must testify that a person is terminally ill, thus ruling out assistance for the chronically or mentally ill. The person seeking help must have given long consideration to his wish to die before doctors can prescribe lethal drugs. Moreover, right-to-die groups would be barred from accepting payments beyond those covering the costs of the suicide. The government also tabled a second bill that would ban assisted suicides altogether. "

The debate has taken a dramatic turn, beginning with a BBC narrator stating on air “I killed someone once.”
The Prime Minister has weighed in too: Gordon Brown: don't legalise assisted suicide.

Economics job market scramble

If you are a new economics Ph.D. and the market is going slowly, hang in there. Similarly if you are a department or other employer who is still trying to fill a position. There's still lots of action left in the market.

If you are still on the market near the end of March, you should think about registering for the 2010 Job Market Scramble

Important Dates:
March 23: Registration will Open
March 30: Registration will Close
April 1-12: Scramble Website will open for viewing by registered participants only
April 12: Scramble Viewing will Close

See the Scramble Guide for more detailed information.

Brief Description:
Occasionally prospective employers of new Ph.D. economists exhaust their candidates before hiring someone during the winter/spring "job market" period. Similarly, new economics Ph.D.s seeking a job sometimes find that all of the prospective employers with whom they have interviewed have hired someone else before they have secured an appointment.
To address these problems, the AEA has established a "Job Market Scramble" web site to facilitate communication between employers and job seekers in late spring. In March, employers that continue to have an open position previously listed in Job Openings for Economists (JOE) may post a short notice of its availability (with a link to the JOE listing). Similarly, new or recent economics Ph.D. job seekers still looking for a position may post a short announcement of their continued availability, with a link to their application materials (C.V., papers, references). The web site will open for viewing to those who have listed a position or availability soon after listings close. There is no charge for the "Job Market Scramble."

In each of the last four years between 67 and 100 employers have participated in the scramble, and (despite low response rates to the post scramble survey of participants) the AEA's Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market (which I chair) has been able to confirm that more than 10% of the jobs offered through the scramble have been filled through contacts initiated via the scramble.

The market for cooked food (and thoughts of D'Artagnan at Maastricht)

The market for pleasure boats ranges from canoes to yachts, and air transport ranges from economy class to big private jets, but the market for cooked food must rival them in its range. Here's an account of an enterprise yacht/jumbo jet meal: The D’Artagnan Anniversary Party.

"To mark the 25th anniversary of her company, D’Artagnan, Ariane Daguin, a native of the Gascon region in the southwest of France, flew in over two hundred of her countrymen for a week-long celebration in New York. ... What’s more, throughout the week Ms. Daugin installed a handful of Michelin-starred Gascon chefs in some of the most venerated kitchens in the city. The collaborations between the visiting chefs and their hosts culminated last Sunday in what D’Artagnan billed as, “The 32 Star Dinner: A Progressive Dining Experience.” Thirty-two is the total number of Michelin and New York Times stars achieved by the group of chefs responsible for the meal, which, true to the epicurean spirit of the evening, was served not in one restaurant, but in four: cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and the first two courses at Daniel, the next at Jean-Georges, two more at Per Se, and dessert at Le Bernardin. The buses that chauffeured us from stop to stop were filled with Gascon Armagnac."

(The headline of the article had led me to think it might be about the historical D'Artagnan, whose experience of Maastricht, in 1673, was more unfortunate than mine in 2009:)

Living Liver and Kidney Donation

The American Journal of Transplantation has assembled a "virtual issue" of articles they have published on various aspects of live donation, including kidney exchange. It seems to be ungated.

Living Liver and Kidney Donation

Guest Editor: Dr. Jonathan Bromberg
"This virtual issue of the American Journal of Transplantation is focused on living donation. For practical purposes, the articles are restricted to only liver and kidney donation. It would not be an overstatement to say that donation has probably been the number one issue to dominate the field for the last decade, as organ quality and availability determine all activities in transplantation. The breadth of importance and ramifications of donation are reflected in the wide variety of articles and topics that cover this area of interest. Novel sources of donors, such as altruistic, anonymous, and non-directed donation among others are covered in the first section. While considered even unusual a few years ago, many of these sources are now firmly partly of the mainstream of living donation. Exchanges, swaps, chains, and dominos are included in the second section, reflecting the evolution of the field as ever more complex donor and recipient algorithms are implemented, and their attendant ramifications on quality, cost, and outcomes. The third section covers organ utilization and outcomes, with an emphasis on matching the optimal donor with the correct recipient, and comparing deceased to living donor organs. The fourth section covers regulatory issues at the national and local levels, and their influence on donation and outcomes. The fifth section comprises issues relating to the donor and donor safety. The work-up process, safeguards, operative techniques, short term outcomes, and very long term outcomes are major issues the have dominated recent trends. The sixth and last section covers educational issues as they related to donor and family knowledge and attitudes toward donation, and that affects donation rates. These reports should provide the reader with a comprehensive view of issues in living liver and kidney donation, and the diverse paths taken that have moved the field forward."

Novel Donor Sources:
Twenty-Two Nondirected Kidney Donors: An Update on a Single Center's ExperienceC. L. Jacobs, D. Roman, C. Garvey, J. Kahn, A. J. Matas
Altruistic Living Donors: Evaluation for Nondirected Kidney or Liver DonationM.D. Jendrisak, B. Hong, S. Shenoy, J. Lowell, N. Desai, W. Chapman, A. Vijayan, R.D. Wetzel, M. Smith, J. Wagner, S. Brennan, D. Brockmeier, D. Kappel
Living Anonymous Liver Donation: Case Report and Ethical JustificationL. Wright, K. Ross, S. Abbey, G. Levy, D. Grant
Successful Expansion of the Living Donor Pool by Alternative Living Donation ProgramsJ. I. Roodnat, J. A. Kal-van Gestel, W. Zuidema, M. A. A. van Noord, J. van de Wetering, J. N. M. IJzermans, W. Weimar
Elective Surgical Patients as Living Organ Donors: A Clinical and Ethical InnovationG. Testa, P. Angelos, M. Crowley-Matoka, M. Siegler
Kidney Donor Exchanges, Chains, and Dominos:
A Comparison of Populations Served by Kidney Paired Donation and List Paired DonationS. E. Gentry, D. L. Segev, R. A. Montgomery
The Dutch National Living Donor Kidney Exchange ProgramM. de Klerk, K. M. Keizer, F. H. J. Claas, M. Witvliet, B. J. J. M. Haase-Kromwijk, W. Weimar
Characterization of Waiting Times in a Simulation of Kidney Paired DonationD. L. Segev, S. E. Gentry, J. K. Melancon, R. A. Montgomery
Attitudes of Minority Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease Regarding ABO-Incompatible List-Paired ExchangesP. D. Ackerman, J. R. Thistlethwaite Jr, L. F. Ross
Incompatible Kidney Donor Candidates' Willingness to Participate in Donor-Exchange and Non-directed DonationA. D. Waterman, E. A. Schenk, A. C. Barrett, B. M. Waterman, J. R. Rodrigue, E. S. Woodle, S. Shenoy, M. Jendrisak, M. Schnitzler
Utilizing List Exchange and Nondirected Donation through 'Chain' Paired Kidney DonationsA. E. Roth, T. Sönmez, M. U. Ünver, F. L. Delmonico, S. L. Saidman
Expanding Kidney Paired Donation Through Participation by Compatible PairsS. E. Gentry, D. L. Segev, M. Simmerling, R. A. Montgomery
Successful Three-Way Kidney Paired Donation with Cross-Country Live Donor Allograft TransportR. A. Montgomery, S. Katznelson, W. I. Bry, A. A. Zachary, J. Houp, J. M. Hiller, S. Shridharani, D. John, A. L. Singer, D. L. Segev
The Roles of Dominos and Nonsimultaneous Chains in Kidney Paired DonationS. E. Gentry, R. A. Montgomery, B. J. Swihart, D. L. Segev
Asynchronous, Out-of-Sequence, Transcontinental Chain Kidney Transplantation: A Novel ConceptF. K. Butt, H. A. Gritsch, P. Schulam, G. M. Danovitch, A. Wilkinson, J. Del Pizzo, S. Kapur, D. Serur, S. Katznelson, S. Busque, M. L. Melcher, S. McGuire, M. Charlton, G. Hil, J. L. Veale
Clinical Outcomes of Multicenter Domino Kidney Paired DonationY. J. Lee, S. U. Lee, S. Y. Chung, B. H. Cho, J. Y. Kwak, C. M. Kang, J. T. Park, D. J. Han, D. J. Kim
Organ Utilization and Outcomes:
Living-Donor Liver Transplantation for HepatoblastomaM. Kasahara, M. Ueda, H. Haga, H. Hiramatsu, M. Kobayashi, S. Adachi, S. Sakamoto, F. Oike, H. Egawa, Y. Takada, K. Tanaka
Living Donor Liver Transplantation for Biliary Atresia: A Single-Center Experience with First 100 CasesC.-L. Chen, A. Concejero, C.-C. Wang, S.-H. Wang, C.-C. Lin, Y.-W. Liu, C.-C. Yong, C.-H. Yang, T.-S. Lin, Y.-C. Chiang, B. Jawan, T.-L. Huang, Y.-F. Cheng, H.-L. Eng
Association Between Waiting Times for Kidney Transplantation and Rates of Live DonationD. L. Segev, S. E. Gentry, R. A. Montgomery
Regional and Racial Disparities in the Use of Live Non-Directed Kidney DonorsD. L. Segev, R. A. Montgomery
Recipient Morbidity After Living and Deceased Donor Liver Tranasplantation: Findings from the A2ALL Retrospective Cohort StudyC. E. Freise, B. W. Gillespie, A. J. Koffron, A. S. F. Lok, T. L. Pruett, J. C. Emond, J. H. Fair, R. A. Fisher, K. M. Olthoff, J. F. Trotter, R. M. Ghobrial, J. E. Everhart
Incidence and Severity of Acute Cellular Rejection in Recipients Undergoing Adult Living Donor or Deceased Donor Liver TransplantationA. Shaked, R. M. Ghobrial, R. M. Merion, T. H. Shearon, J. C. Emond, J. H. Fair, R. A. Fisher, L. M. Kulik, T. L. Pruett, N. A. Terrault
Resource Utilization of Living Donor Versus Deceased Donor Liver Transplantation Is Similar at an Experienced Transplant CenterJ. C. Lai, E. M. Pichardo, J. C. Emond, R. S. Brown Jr.
Organ Donation and Utilization in the United States: 1998–2007J. E. Tuttle-Newhall, S. M. Krishnan, M. F. Levy, V. McBride, J. P. Orlowski, R. S. Sung
Unique Early Gene Expression Patterns in Human Adult-to-Adult Living Donor Liver Grafts Compared to Deceased Donor GraftsJ. de Jonge, S. Kurian, A. Shaked, K. R. Reddy, W. Hancock, D. R. Salomon, K. M. Olthoff
Regulatory:
Incentive Models to Increase Living Kidney Donation: Encouraging Without CoercingA. K. Israni, S. D. Halpern, S. Zink, S. A. Sidhwani, A. Caplan
Limiting Financial Disincentives in Live Organ Donation: A Rational Solution to the Kidney ShortageR. S. Gaston, G. M. Danovitch, R. A. Epstein, J. P. Kahn, A. J. Matas, M. A. Schnitzler
Public Attitudes Toward Incentives for Organ Donation: A National Study of Different Racial/Ethnic and Income GroupsL. E. Boulware, M. U. Troll, N. Y. Wang, N. R. Powe
The Association of State and National Legislation with Living Kidney Donation Rates in the United States: A National StudyL. E. Boulware, M. U. Troll, L. C. Plantinga, N. R. Powe
The Evolution and Direction of OPTN Oversight of Live Organ Donation and Transplantation in the United StatesR. S. Brown, Jr, R. Higgins, T. L Pruett
Stimulus for Organ Donation: A Survey of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons MembershipJ. R. Rodrigue, K. Crist, J. P. Roberts, R. B. Freeman Jr., R. M. Merion, A. I. Reed
Donor Procedures, Outcomes and Safety:
Obesity in Living Kidney Donors: Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes in the Era of Laparoscopic Donor NephrectomyJ. K. Heimbach, S. J. Taler, M. Prieto, F. G. Cosio, S. C. Textor, Y. C. Kudva, G. K. Chow, M. B. Ishitani, T. S. Larson, M. D. Stegall
Laparoscopic Procurement of Kidneys with Multiple Renal Arteries is Associated with Increased Ureteral Complications in the RecipientJ. T. Carter, C. E. Freise, R. A. McTaggart, H. D. Mahanty, S.M. Kang, S. H. Chan, S. Feng, J. P. Roberts, A. M. Posselt
Pre-donation Assessment of Kidneys by Magnetic Resonance Angiography and Venography: Accuracy and Impact on OutcomesS. A. Ames, M. Krol, K. Nettar, J. P. Goldman, T. M. Quinn, D. M. Herron, A. Pomp, J. S. Bromberg
Long-Term Consequences of Live Kidney Donation Follow-Up in 93% of Living Kidney Donors in a Single Transplant CenterJ. Gossmann, A. Wilhelm, H.G. Kachel, J. Jordan, U. Sann, H. Geiger, W. Kramer, E.H. Scheuermann
More on Parental Living Liver Donation for Children with Fulminant Hepatic Failure: Addressing Concerns About Competing Interests, Coercion, Consent and Balancing ActsA. Spital
Predictive Capacity of Pre-Donation GFR and Renal Reserve Capacity for Donor Renal Function After Living Kidney DonationM. Rook, H. S. Hofker, W. J. van Son, J. J. Homan van der Heide, R. J. Ploeg, G. J. Navis
Laparoscopic-Assisted Right Lobe Donor HepatectomyA.J. Koffron, R. Kung, T. Baker, J. Fryer, L. Clark, M. Abecassis
Cold Ischemia Time and Allograft Outcomes in Live Donor Renal Transplantation: Is Live Donor Organ Transport Feasible?C. E. Simpkins, R. A. Montgomery, A. M. Hawxby, J. E. Locke, S. E. Gentry, D. S. Warren, D. L. Segev
Evaluating Living Kidney Donors: Relationship Types, Psychosocial Criteria, and Consent Processes at US Transplant ProgramsJ. R. Rodrigue, M. Pavlakis, G. M. Danovitch, S. R. Johnson, S. J. Karp, K. Khwaja, D. W. Hanto, D. A. Mandelbrot
The Medical Evaluation of Living Kidney Donors: A Survey of US Transplant CentersD. A. Mandelbrot, M. Pavlakis, G. M. Danovitch, S. R. Johnson, S. J. Karp, K. Khwaja, D. W. Hanto, J. R. Rodrigue
Rescue of a Living Donor with Liver TransplantationB. Ringe, G. Xiao, D. A. Sass, J. Karam, S. Shang, T. P. Maroney, A. E. Trebelev, S. Levison, A. C. Fuchs, R. Petrucci, A. Ko, M. Gonzalez, J. C. Reynolds, W. C. Meyers
Nephrectomy Elicits Impact of Age and BMI on Renal Hemodynamics: Lower Postdonation Reserve Capacity in Older or Overweight Kidney DonorsM. Rook, R. J. Bosma, W. J. van Son, H. S. Hofker, J. J. Homan van der Heide, P. M. ter Wee, R. J. Ploeg, G. J. Navis
Pregnancy and Birth After Kidney Donation: The Norwegian ExperienceA. V. Reisæter, J. Røislien, T. Henriksen, L. M. Irgens, A. Hartmann
Pregnancy Outcomes After Kidney DonationH. N. Ibrahim, S. K. Akkina, E. Leister, K. Gillingham, G. Cordner, H. Guo, R. Bailey, T. Rogers, A. J. Matas
Education:
Preferences, Knowledge, Communication and Patient-Physician Discussion of Living Kidney Transplantation in African American FamiliesL. E. Boulware, L. A. Meoni, N. E. Fink, R. S. Parekh, W. H. L. Kao, M. J. Klag, N. R. Powe
Organ Donation Decision: Comparison of Donor and Nondonor FamiliesJ. R. Rodrigue, D. L. Cornell, R. J. Howard
Increasing Live Donor Kidney Transplantation: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Home-Based Educational InterventionJ. R. Rodrigue, D. L. Cornell, J. K. Lin, B. Kaplan, R. J. Howard
Emigration from the British Isles to Southeastern Spain: A Study of Attitudes Toward Organ DonationA. Ríos, P. Cascales, L. Martínez, J. Sánchez, N. Jarvis, P. Parrilla, P. Ramírez
Virtual Issue compiled online 2 Feb 2010