Privatizing Organ Donation: A Solution

Introduction
Today there are 120,000 people on the national transplant
waiting list in the United States. Organ donation is typically a long and
complicated process. Since the National Organ Transplant Act was
passed in 1984, outlawing financial compensation for organ donors,
millions of Americans in need have wasted precious time waiting on
the government regulated transplant list. Many never receive a lifesaving transplant because there are simply not enough viable organs
being donated. One major influencing factor of the organ shortage is
the lack of financial compensation for organ donors.
Problem
Organ donors in America pay $5,000 to $20,000 to save a life
(Steiner with Jacobs 2008). If this economic burden were reduced to
nothing, it is likely that the number of donors would skyrocket and the
transplant list would quickly dwindle. For this reason we propose organ
donation in America be privatized and that a non-governmental nonprofit organization be left to regulate and facilitate organ transplants
and compensate living donors for travel, accommodations, and time of
work for recovery. Implementing such a system would greatly reduce
the financial burden for organ donors, making potential donors more
likely to donate and thus increasing the overall efficiency of the organ
transplant system.

Solution
Privatizing organ donation would reduce or eliminate the
economic burden placed upon organ donors, leading to higher rates of
donation nationwide. It seems obvious that the current cost of organ
donation is the primary reason people who would otherwise be willing
to donate an organ cannot or do not. After all, it is not reasonable to
expect someone to pay up to $20,000 out of pocket to undergo an
unnecessary and risky surgery in order to potentially save the life of a
complete stranger. Couple this with the fact a surgery typically means
missing six weeks of work for recovery (Olson 2014) and one can begin
to understand just how much of a limiting factor finance is on the
organ transplant system. Many scholars suggest compensation of
living donors to break even and paying for the funeral costs of postmortem donors as a way to alleviate this problem (Albouna 2008;
Olson 2014; Lwin with Williams with Lan 2002). These suggestions
might work well, however they cannot be enacted within the existing
institution for organ donation due to the restrictions placed on organ
donations by the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984. The act states,
it shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or
otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use
in human transplantation if the transfer afects interstate commerce.
In essence, donors cannot be compensated financially for trying to

save someones life and must shoulder the cost of organ donation
themselves.
The only way to fix this issue is to privatize organ donation and
allow a non-governmental organization to oversee donation and
compensate donors. This system of privatization works and it can be
seen in the efectiveness of sperm donation. Sperm banks and fertility
clinics are flourishing across the United States and are helping infertile
couples become proud parents daily. Most large cities in the country
house multiple banks and are very accessible to the general public.
There are a few ways by which our non-profit will make enough money
necessary to operate on a daily basis. Aside from the common method
of fundraising, we plan on using corporate sponsors as a way to fund
our operations. Many corporations set aside funds for philanthropic
ventures in exchange for free advertising. Our organization would
utilize this potential to maximize our ability to attain organs and reduce
to financial burden on donors. We would also tap into the vast amount
of federal and state grants that are available for non-profits. These
grants already allocated to help non-profits and are available in all fifty
states. These methods, along with the usual fundraising from private
citizens, would be our main means of acquiring the necessary capital
to maintain a successful operation. Donation is never an issue because
of the financial compensation of donorsthis principle can be applied
to organ donation. If private institutions were allowed to compensate

people for their organ donations in a similar way to that of sperm

donations, it is likely the transplant list would quickly become a nonissue (Weimar 2006).
Despite the argument that altruism is and should continue to be
the primary motivation for donation and that financial compensation
would efectively undermine the altruistic motivations behind donation,
it is important to remember that under the privatized system altruism
remains the primary motivator (Prottas 1983; DeLong with Drachman
with Gortmaker with Beasley with Evanisko 1995). The financial
compensation aspect of our proposal is simply a way for donors to
break evennot a way for people to sell their organs for monetary
gain. There would be no real economic benefit for donation but instead
a removal of the limiting economic burden that is placed upon donors.
As for those who believe that incentivizing people to donate organs is
unethical, we believe this incentive is a way of helping people save a
life instead of having to choose between anothers well-being and their
own personal economic status.
Conclusion
Privatization is the only real solution to the organ donation
problem in the United States. Thousands of people wait on the
transplant list only for an organ to arrive too late, while others who
wish to selflessly donate their organs are forced to shoulder an intense
economic burden. By privatizing the process of organ donation, an

entire avenue of financial compensation will be opened and organ

donation will be a much more efective and beneficial process for all
parties involved.

Website Summary
Our website has seven pages: Home, Our Mission, Get Involved,
Testimonies, Social Media, Photo Gallery, and About Us. The Home
page features a slideshow of organ recipients and our mission
statement. Our Mission includes our mission statement in further
detail, explains why we chose to privatize organ donation, lays out the
cost and risk of organ donation, and highlights key FAQs. Get Involved
discusses what can be done locally, how to donate to Recycle Yourself
America, a link to becoming an organ donor, and shows our past
fundraising events. Testimonies features twelve testimonies from both
donors and recipients that will hopefully inspire people to become
donors themselves. Social Media is all about the Recycle Yourself
campaign. There you can purchase water bottles, t-shirts, buttons, and
bumper stickers with the Recycle Yourself logo. Our Photo Gallery has
lots of photos of donors, recipients, and fundraising events all involved
with Recycle Yourself America. About Us has a heartwarming donor
story and talks about our team and our inspiration. It also features our
white paper as a document attachment.

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