AMA debates pay for organ donations

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — As the nation’s need for organ transplants continues to outstrip supply, the American Medical Association on Sunday grappled with a possible solution once thought taboo: paying dying would-be donors and their families for vital organs.

Such financial incentives are illegal, banned by Congress in 1984, and as a result people needing organ transplants must rely strictly on voluntary donors.

However, only 25 percent of 78,000 organ transplants currently needed will occur in time to save a life, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit agency that the government pays to oversee the nation’s organ donor network.

Studies show 15,000 people die each year waiting for an organ transplant, the agency says.

Most donation decisions must be made by families of people who die suddenly and unexpectedly, and most families in those situations decline to offer up their dead relatives for donations.

"We have a nationwide crisis and altruism doesn’t seem to be hacking it right now," said Dr. Frank Riddick Jr., chairman of the AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.

Riddick’s council was urging the AMA to begin scientific studies on what effect financial incentives would have on organ donations. The group debated the issue on Sunday and was to make its recommendation to the full AMA today. The AMA will decide later this week if it will adopt the council’s recommendation.

If the AMA does agree to test financial incentives, Congress would have to change current law to permit a study. One such program passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1999, which would have the state pay $300 toward the funeral of every donor, has never been implemented because of the federal ban.

A congressional bill introduced in May, dubbed the Gift of Life Tax Credit Act, would allow a donor family a $10,000 tax credit in exchange for donated organs.

In the meantime, blood and reproductive material can legally be sold.

"There seems to be no compelling reason why viable solid organs should be treated differently from less complex tissues on moral grounds," the council’s report says. "Moreover, donation itself implies a property right in organs."

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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