Organs and executed prisoners: Jay Lavee goes to Taiwan

Jay Lavee, the Israeli transplant surgeon behind some of Israel's new legislation (and who I met in person for the first time at Duke),  recently returned from Taiwan, and forwarded these links:

The first is to this story in the Tapei Times:

"Two issues surrounding organ transplants in Taiwan were spotlighted by foreign experts and Taiwanese legislators: using executed prisoners as organ donors and post-transplant medication insured by the NHI.
Jacob Lavee, director of the heart transplant unit at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, said he used to hold up Taiwan on various occasions as a prominent example of a nation that had stopped taking organs from executed prisoners, who are considered unwilling donors, until he regretfully discovered Taiwan had resumed using such organs two years ago.

"The Department of Health’s Bureau of Planning head Shih Chung-yuan (石崇原) said in response that “although there is no law banning the use of organs taken from executed prisoners, the government does not encourage it and has stopped soliciting organ donations in the prison.”

"Concerning the current lawless state of organ transplants performed abroad, Shih said that in 2009, an amendment to the Organ Transplant Act (人體器官移植條例) was proposed that would require all organ recipients, in Taiwan or abroad, to register with local authorities, but it was not passed.
Tien also called for stricter regulation for organ transplants performed abroad, saying that since the majority (88.6 percent) of Taiwanese organ recipients went to China for organ transplants that are often from questionable and unethical organ sources, but continue to be insured by the NHI for post-transplant medication, “it almost seems like all Taiwanese who contribute to the NHI are complicit with the illegal and unethical organ-harvesting crimes perpetrated in China.”
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Here's a related story from NTD news: Taiwan's Health Department Wants to Criminalize Organ Trade


Taiwan’s health department said on Thursday it plans to modify its organ transplant laws to criminalize organ trade and brokerage.

The main concern is illegally obtained organs in China, where authorities have been accused of killing prisoners of conscience for their organs. China is the main destination for Taiwanese patients who obtain organs overseas.

[Hsu Ming-neng, Director, Bureau of Medical Affairs, Department of Health]:
“We want to minimize the occurrence of using organs with questionable sources. We plan to discuss the amendment of organ transplant laws [during the upcoming legislative period] and we want everyone’s support.”

Hsu Ming-neng spoke during a forum in Taipei on Thursday organized by the Department of Health. On the panel was a group of five doctors and investigators from around the world. They visited Taiwan this week to highlight transplant abuse in China.

Dr Jacob Lavee from Israel discovered his patients were going to China for rapid transplants. Some were promised an organ on a certain day—something that suggests China has an “on-demand” organ supply.

He has since worked to get Israel to stop transplant tourism to China.

[Jacob Lavee, MD, Advisor, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting]:
“Those brokers who intermediate between local candidates and overseas [donors in China], that should be taken care of. That’s what we’ve done in Israel and that’s the way we’ve succeeded in Israel to stop completely the flow of Israeli patients to China.”

US-based doctor, Jianchao Xu, says a combined effort is necessary to stop forced organ harvesting in China.

[Jianchao Xu, MD, Medical Director, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting]:
“I think the public, medical community, the political field and the legal community all need to take action, because this isn’t something that doctors alone can accomplish.”

Independent investigators and human rights activists have accused the Chinese regime of profiting from forced organ harvesting. The largest groups of victims identified are persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. Detained House Christians and Uyghur minorities are also believed to be amongst those killed for their organs.

NTD News, Taiwan

Organs and Inducements at Duke

I was talked into going to what turned out to be a wonderful conference.  The modal participant was a law professor, but here's a photo of economists and a surgeon:

Judd Kessler, Jay Lavee, Al Roth, Avi Stoler

Kim Krawiec posts about the conference at the Faculty Lounge: I reproduce her post below...

"Organs & Inducements

I, of course, meant to post this in advance of the symposium, but underestimated the amount of time and attention last minute details would consume (what’s that phrase about older but not wiser?).  So I’m just getting to it now. 

Anyway, I think that the event was a big success and I will have more to say about it in the coming days.  For now, I’ll just post the symposium abstract, along with a thanks to all the many wonderful participants who made this event a success. 

More to follow . . .

Symposium Abstract:

The need for human organs for transplantation far outstrips supply. As a result, a large literature has developed debating possible means to address the gap. Suggestions range from procurement system improvements and changes in the consent regime, in the case of cadaveric organ donation, to inventive exchange systems (such as swaps and NEAD chains) and financial incentives of various sorts, in the case of live organ donation.

In Organs and Inducements, contributors build on existing debates on mechanisms designed to bridge the gap between organ demand and supply, to address deeper questions regarding inducements to donate.   Among the varied possible mechanisms of persuasion and incentives at society’s disposal, what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each?  What are the larger ethical, economic, sociological, and psychological issues raised by these different types of inducements, including non-financial inducements?  Why are some accepted by the law and society at large, while others are not?  Do the lines we’ve drawn among permissible and impermissible inducements make sense, given the concerns those rules are meant to address?"

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Update: here's a further post today by Kim K., on the origins of the conference (and why they chose the word "inducements" rather than "incentives": More Organs & Inducements 

Video of my recent talk at the SIEPR economic summit

Here I was: speaking on Friday March 15, 2013.

"Horse meat is the Tatar's Viagra"

While horse meat may be repugnant in some places, the controversy over horse meat in Russia is over how to prepare it: Appreciation of the Horse, Well-Cooked

"In parts of Russia and throughout Central Asia, horse is a central feature in traditional cuisine and is considered almost mandatory on special occasions.
...
"Mr. Nasyrov buys much of his horse meat from trusted local producers in Tatarstan, the heavily Muslim region east of Moscow where, he said, residents ascribe even greater attributes to eating horse.

“Horse meat,” he said, “is the Tatar’s Viagra.”
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You can buy canned horse meat here.

Furniture in Foshan

When I spoke in Foshan China, I got an opportunity to see one of the big furniture markets in that city, this one run by the Louvre Group:

Beijing East Linden Co.

While in Beijing I visited the East Linden Company, which is making a market for intellectual property by producing a high-tech searchable database of traditional medicines. Visiting them felt a lot like visiting a Silicon Valley start up (e.g. they run their own automatic translation server, and you can search their database by starting with a molecule...)

The chairwoman, Madame Yanhuai Liu graciously agreed to let me take this photo of her, next to two pictures in her office of her mother and father, a general who went on the Long March.

My names in Chinese transliteration

Irwin Rose, Irvine Ross, and Elvin Ross all appear in the Google Translate version of this story  (2012诺奖得主：中国经济需要市场设计   2012 Nobel laureate: Chinese economy needs a market design) about a talk I gave in Beijing.

Here's one version of my name in Chinese, which I gather lends itself to the "Ross" pronunciation:

Stanford's student senate rejects an anti-Israel divestment resolution

The Stanford Daily has the story of the contentious and lengthy debate: Undergraduate Senate votes against divestmentbill

The resolution failed handily: the newspaper account also gives in passing a picture of Stanford's diverse student Senate:
"[the divestment] bill did not pass, with seven senators in opposition, five abstaining and one in support of the bill.
"Senator Janhavi Vartak ’15 voted in favor. Senators Anna Brezhneva ’15, Brandon Hightower ’15, Garima Sharma ’15, Bindra, Miller, Olivos and Pham voted against. Senators Fadavi, Bacon, Crouch, Haveles and Menjivar abstained."

A number of faculty members and well known personalities from the wider world sent messages both for and against divestment. The SD has that story too: two market designers were mentioned as being against the proposal. The full statements of many of those who went on record as opposing divestment can be found on the page of the Stanford Israel Alliance  Mine is here, and Yoav Shoham's is a short scroll down..

Matching and Market Design: Bob Wilson and Mary Kline

Matching is important, and I returned from a trip to China just in time to attend the wedding of the Dean of Design, my advisor Bob Wilson, and Mary Kline.

Mazel tov, Bob and Mary!

Call for papers: May 4 Bay Area Behavioral and Experimental Economics Workshop

Call for Papers

Bay Area Behavioral and Experimental Economics Workshop

Saturday May 4, 2013, University of San Francisco

The Bay Area Behavioral Economics and Experimental Workshop (BABEEW) will be hosted this year by the University of San Francisco on Saturday, May 4^th 2012, in Fromm Hall (http://www.usfca.edu/campusmap/).

The objective of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for Bay Area researchers in behavioral economics and related fields to share their latest research.

All interested researchers are invited to submit an abstract for presentation. We would also appreciate it if you could advertise this call for papers in your department and inform interested faculty members and students.

There will be breakfast, coffee breaks, lunch, and dinner paid for by the sponsors*. We reserved the Koret Rec Center parking lot free all day (!) (http://tinyurl.com/ParkingBABEEW2013). Participants will need to cover any other travel or accommodation expenses. Hotel at a walkable distance: Stanyan Park Hotel (let’s say it is full of old times charm).

Deadlines

The deadline for submitting an abstract (250 words or less) is Friday, April 5^th 2013. Acceptance decisions will be e-mailed to registered participants by Friday, April 19^th. The workshop program will be e-mailed to registered participant by April 25^th.

To submit and register: http://tinyurl.com/BABEEW2013

BABEEW Scientific Committee

Alessandra Cassar              Univ. of San Francisco

Dan Friedman                     UC, Santa Cruz

John Ifcher
                        Santa Clara University

Linda Kamas
                    Santa Clara University

John Morgan                       UC, Berkeley

Charles Sprenger                Stanford University

*We gratefully acknowledge funding from the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology (IAREP), the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), and the International Confederation for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics and Economic Psychology (ICABEEP).

Exchanges for digital goods

The NY Times has the story: Imagining a Swap Meet for E-Books and Music


"In late January, Amazon received a patent to set up an exchange for all sorts of digital material. The retailer would presumably earn a commission on each transaction, and consumers would surely see lower prices.

"But a shudder went through publishers and media companies. Those who produce content might see their work devalued, just as they did when Amazon began selling secondhand books 13 years ago. The price on the Internet for many used books these days is a penny.

"On Thursday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published Apple’s application for its own patent for a digital marketplace. Apple’s application outlines a system for allowing users to sell or give e-books, music, movies and software to each other by transferring files rather than reproducing them. Such a system would permit only one user to have a copy at any one time.

"Meanwhile, a New York court is poised to rule on whether a start-up that created a way for people to buy and sell iTunes songs is breaking copyright law. A victory for the company would mean that consumers would not need either Apple’s or Amazon’s exchange to resell their digital items. Electronic bazaars would spring up instantly.

“The technology to allow the resale of digital goods is now in place, and it will cause a dramatic upheaval,” said Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps, a technology consulting firm. “In the short term, it’s great for consumers. Over the long term, however, it could seriously reduce creators’ incentive to create.”

Treadmill desk

Not for everyone, but I enjoy mine when I'm in my office at Stanford:

Sun Yat-Sen Business School in Foshan, China

Nobel Economics Laureate Alvin Roth Visiting Foshan, China

Source：External Liaison Office     Hits：26     Time： 2013-03-06 08:45

Hosts
Sun Yat-sen Business School, Time WeeklyForum
Market Design, China Opportunity – Transformation, Promotion and Market Design

Time
14:00 – 17:00, March 20, 2013Venue
Louvre International Furniture Exhibition Center, Foshan, China
Topics
1. Market Design in Chinese Style
2. Market Design, Matching Theory and Enterprise OperationKeynote Speakers
1. Alvin Roth, Professor of Harvard Business School, 2012 Nobel Economics Laureate
2. Yadong LUO, Emery Findlay Distinguished Chair and Professor of Management, University of Miami, International Dean of SYSBS

Schedule:
13: 30 – 14: 30  Reception
14: 30 – 14: 40  Conference Welcome
14: 40 – 15: 40  Keynote Speech
15: 40 – 16: 00  Coffee Break
16: 00 – 17: 00  Round Table Forum

Keynote Speakers


Alvin Roth

Alvin Elliot Roth is an American economist and George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Roth has made significant contributions to the fields of game theory, market design and experimental economics, and is known for his emphasis on applying his economic theory to solutions for "real-world" problems.

In 2012, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Lloyd Shapley "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yadong LUO

Dr. Yadong LUO is International Dean and Distinguished Honorary Professor of SYSBS. He is the Emery M. Findley Distinguished Chair of Graduate Business Studies and Professor of Management at University of Miami. He is also an elected Fellow of Academy of International Business.

LUO has emerged as the world's top research scholar in international management since the mid-90s. He has published over 150 articles in major refereed journals in international business and management, including AMJ, ASQ, AMR, SMJ, JIBS, JAP, Org. Science, among others. He also authored more than a dozen books and about a hundred other publications. His research interests include global corporate strategy, global corporate governance, international joint ventures, and management in emerging economies, among others.

LUO's research record includes seminal pieces on important and timely topics, such as co-opetition in international business, business-government relationships, cross-cultural cooperative strategies, multinational enterprises in emerging markets, and international expansion of emerging market enterprises. He currently is a consulting editor of JIBS, editor of JWB, and senior editor of MOR. He is the recipient of a dozen research and teaching awards at U. of Miami and U. of Hawaii where he taught before joining UM.

Organ donation and Islam: Saudi scholar registers as organ donor

In Iran there's a monetary market for kidneys, but elsewhere in the Islamic world (and elsewhere) some have questions about organ transplantation of any sort. In Saudi Arabia, a top religious scholar has signed up as an organ donor, to make his position clear.

EDDAH: ARAB NEWS

Sunday 10 March 2013

Last Update 9 March 2013 11:55 pm

Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mutlaq, member of the Board of Senior Ulema and Royal Court Adviser, has signed up as an organ donor in a move to end the debate over organ donation permissibility in Islam.
Al-Mutlaq attended a symposium on organ donation organized by the Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. Currently, three to four organ transplant operations are conducted daily.
Kidney donations from non-relatives increased by 10 percent, which resulted in 73 more donation cases last year, while liver transplants increased by the same percentage, roughly equivalent to 30 more operations, said Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, supervisor general of the Prince Fahad bin Salman Charity Association for Renal Failure Patients Care (Kellana) who attended the event.
Prince Abdulaziz said that in the last 30 years, more than 7,000 people had kidney transplants and more than 1,000 had liver transplants. There were 94 reported lung transplants, 228 heart transplants, 663 cornea transplants and 19 pancreas transplant operations in the same period.
Sheikh Saleh bin Humaid, member of the Board of Senior Ulemas and imam of the Grand Mosque, said that organ donation permissibility is decided in terms of Shariah, although it is crucial to be sure that the prospective donor is pronounced brain dead, which is an issue that still needs more research.

Fewer Israelis seeking transplants abroad: more live donations at home

New laws have limited transplants overseas, and have provided some payments to living donors in Israel.  Haaretz has the story (may be gated):
"Law meant to prevent organ trafficking passed in 2008 also means the number of transplants within the country, as well as the percentage of Haredi men seeking to donate for altruistic reasons, is on the upswing; more women serve as live donors than men."


"The number of Israelis seeking kidney transplants abroad is plummeting, in the wake of a 2008 law meant to prevent organ trafficking.

"In 2007, 143 Israelis received kidney transplants abroad, but according to Health Ministry statistics, that number took a nosedive to 35 in 2011.

"The sharp decline comes as a result of more stringent guidelines for transplants; since the law was passed, HMOs have approved funding for kidney transplants abroad only from cadavers in the United States, Russia and Latvia.

"While transplants abroad have dropped, the new Organ Transplant Law has also led to a 50-percent increase in kidney transplants from live donors in Israel. A new study conducted at Beilinson Hospital and at Tel Aviv University found that the law, which both prohibits the sale of organs but also – in a first-time ruling – allows live donors to receive monetary compensation, has led to a significant change in the mix of such donors. Haredi men are now seeking, via the law, to donate kidneys for altruistic reasons. In these cases, the donors are not related to the patients.

"The payment of donors under the new law, amounting to thousands of shekels, began in August 2010, covering all live organ donors in Israel from May 2008. At the same time, statistics provided by the National Transplant Center showed a steep increase of 64 percent in the number of live kidney donors in 2011 (117 transplants) as compared with 2010 (71). The number of transplants in 2012 (108) was at a similar level.

Pictures with President Obama

Before the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm, the five 2012 American Nobel laureates were invited to meet with President Obama in the Oval Office.  These pictures arrived in the mail not long ago.

Handshake: Lloyd Shapley and his son Peter are right behind me.

6 American Nobel laureates and a President

A few thoughts:

The United States does very well in Nobel prizes. It's probably good for us that the prizes are given by Swedish institutions and not American ones.

An American president spends a lot of time with the White House photographer. (You wonder when a newly elected president learns just how much of his time will be spent having his picture taken.)

The pictures each came with a sticker on the back saying that they were not to be disseminated without permission. I asked for and immediately received permission  from the White House Photo Office to post these on my blog (in an email from Rick McKay, 2/21/13).

Yesterday was match day for NYC high school students too

New doctors weren't the only ones matched yesterday, so were members of the freshman class for New York City high schools.

Here's a story about New York City high school students: Most Eighth Graders Matched to a High School of Their Choice, and here's another: DOE: Most students admitted to their top NYC high school choices

And here's the NRMP's account of yesterday's residency match, and a story from NPR.

Match Day today for new doctors

Good luck to all those matching today!

Here's the Wall Street Journal's anticipatory story: New Doctors Eagerly Await 'Match Day'

"The National Resident Matching Program, the nonprofit group that pairs applicants with openings, expects this year's match to be the largest ever, surpassing last year when 31,355 U.S. and foreign applicants vied for 24,035 first-year residency openings."

Here's the NRMP's press release:

The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) will announce the 2013 medical residency Match results for more than 17,000 United States allopathic medical school seniors and more than 16,000 other applicants on Friday, March 15, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Match Day, an annual rite of passage, is when medical school students learn where they will live and train for the next three to seven years at their medical residency programs.

“It’s a wonderful and exciting day,” said Mona M. Signer, executive director of the NRMP. She added, “We are honored to play a small role each year in moving forward the careers of young physicians.”

U. S. senior medical students typically begin the residency application process at the beginning of their final year in medical school. After they apply to programs, programs review applications and invite selected candidates for interviews, which are held in the fall and early winter. Once the interview period is over, both parties create rank-order lists. Programs rank applicants in order of preference, and applicants compile their lists based on their preferred medical specialty and the location of the training programs.

The NRMP matching algorithm pairs the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs, producing a “best result” in order to fill the available training positions at U.S. teaching hospitals. Research about the NRMP algorithm was a basis of Dr. Alvin Roth’s receipt of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Students and graduates of international medical schools, osteopathic (D.O. degree) schools, and Canadian candidates also participate in the Match. Last year more than 38, 377 applicants vied for positions, and the NRMP reported a 95% successful NRMP Match result for U. S. seniors.

For more information on this year’s Match results, please visit http://www.nrmp.org after 1:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, March 15, or contact your local medical school for details on their Match Day ceremonies.

Here's the schedule:

March 15, 2013	Match Day! Match results for applicants are posted to Web site at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) concludes at 5:00 p.m. eastern time.
March 16, 2013	Hospitals begin sending letters of appointment to matched applicants after this date.

SIEPR Economic Summit 2013 at Stanford

Tomorrow , March 15  is the SIEPR Economic Summit 2013 at Stanford.

Moderator: Steve Kohlhagen, Member, SIEPR Advisory Board

7:30 – 8:00 Breakfast 

8:00 – 9:00 Opening Remarks: Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-CIO, PIMCO

9:00 – 10:20 SESSION I: Comprehensive Tax Reform 
Moderator: Jim Poterba, President, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Mitsui Professor of Economics, MIT; Member, SIEPR Advisory Board
Glenn Hubbard, Dean, Columbia Business School; former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA)
Leonard Burman, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Professor of Public Affairs, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

10:40 – 12:00 SESSION II: Health Policy After Obamacare 
Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, Director, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform and Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution
Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, Diane V.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor; Professor of Health Care Management; and Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Wharton; Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

12:00 – 12:45 Lunch 
12:45 – 1:30 Lunch Remarks 
David Wessel, Author, Red Ink (Random House 2012); Economics Editor, The Wall Street Journal; and Pulitzer Prize Winner

1:50 – 3:10 SESSION III: The Future of Europe
John Lipsky, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University; Member, SIEPR Advisory Board
Janice Eberly, Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, Department of the Treasury

3:10 – 4:10 SESSION IV: Who Gets What: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design 
Alvin Roth, Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics, Stanford University; 2012 Nobel Laureate, Economics; Senior Fellow, SIEPR

4:30 – 5:45 Critical Issue Sessions - Panels will address four important topics of the year:
Can India Keep Pace?, The Online Learning Revolution, Designing California's New Health Care Exchange, Environment and the Economy

THE EVENING
6:00 – 6:45 Reception
6:45 – 9:00 Dinner and Keynote Speaker
Axel Weber, Chairman of the Board, UBS AG; former President, Deutsche Bundesbank

Stanford University Economics Department Stanford Center for Intern

Boston School Committee votes for "personalized" school districts

Late breaking news, tonight: Boston School Committee approves new student-assignment system (see this mornings post):

"The Boston School Committee tonight scrapped a school assignment plan developed under court-ordered desegregation almost a quarter century ago and approved a system that seeks to allow more students to attend schools closer to home.

Starting in fall 2014, the School Department will do away with three massive student-assignment zones, which it has operated since 1989.

Instead, a complex algorithm will generate a list of schools from which parents could choose based on a variety of factors, such as distance from school, school capacity, and MCAS performance. Parents will receive at least six school choices, including a minimum of four of medium or high-quality.

The committee also voted to do away with the so-called walk preference for schools."

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As far as I can tell from a distance, I believe that preferences will still be processed according to the deferred acceptance algorithm my colleagues and I helped a previous school committee to adopt...

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Update: here's the story in Boston Magazine: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/03/14/a-chinese-mit-grad-student-designed-the-new-school-choice-system/