Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action

Rates of organ donation lag far behind the increasing need. At the start of 2006, more than 90,000 people were waiting to receive a solid organ (kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, heart, or intestine). Organ Donation examines a wide range of proposals to increase organ donation, including policies that presume consent for donation as well as the use of financial incentives such as direct payments, coverage of funeral expenses, and charitable contributions. This book urges federal agencies, nonprofit groups, and others to boost opportunities for people to record their decisions to donate, strengthen efforts to educate the public about the benefits of organ donation, and continue to improve donation systems. Organ Donation also supports initiatives to increase donations from people whose deaths are the result of irreversible cardiac failure. This book emphasizes that all members of society have a stake in an adequate supply of organs for patients in need, because each individual is a potential recipient as well as a potential donor.

• Front Matter
• Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Trends and Patterns
• 3 Perspectives and Principles
• 4 Systems To Support Organ Donation
• 5 Expanding The Population of Potential
• 6 Promoting and Facilitating Individual and Family Decisions to Donate
• 7 Presumed Consent
• 8 Incentives for Deceased Donation
• 9 Ethical Considerations In Living Donation
• 10 Opportunities for Action
• Appendix A Acronyms
• Appendix B Workshop Meetings
• Appendix C First-Person Consent Status and Organ Donor Registry Participation
• Appendix D Quantifying Self-Interest in Organ Donation
• Appendix E HRSA's Extramural Research Program
• Appendix F Washington Hospital Center: Protocol for the Rapid Organ Recovery Program, Transplantation Services
• Appendix G Committee and Staff Biographies
• Index