Incentivizing deceased organ donation: A Swedish priority-setting perspective

Abstract

We find that our proposal for compensated deceased donation is compatible with the values of the Swedish healthcare system, and therefore merits serious consideration. It is however important to acknowledge issues relating to coercion, commodification and loss of public trust and the ethical challenges that they might pose.

International survey of nephrologists' perceptions and attitudes about rewards and compensations for kidney donation

“…Some authorities believe that any payment will have negative consequences leading to commercialization and would undermine transplant efforts [17][18][19]. Others have suggested that providing incentives or removing disincentives for organ donation will lead to an increase in organ donation [20][21][22][23][24]. There has also been significant debate surrounding the option of a regulated system of incentives for donation [17,18,21,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

The Magnitude of the Health and Economic Impact of Increased Organ Donation on Patients With End-Stage Renal Disease

“… 20 For compensated donation, the concerns are that this policy may be coercive, particularly for lower income families. 22 , 24 , 42 The societal benefit of increased organ donation is significant, however, and thus these ethical concerns must be weighed when considering implementation of a new policy.…”

“…Other approaches may involve implementation of policies to maximize the efficiency of donor organ consent and retrieval in hospitals [20][21][22] or financial compensation for families of the decedent (e.g., to help cover funeral expenses). [22][23][24] The precise impact of these policies on organ donation is also unknown.…”

Organ donation as an ‘altruistic gift’: Incentives and reciprocity in deceased organ donation from a UK Polish migrant perspective

“…To assess how reciprocity and incentives could be applied in reality, it has been suggested that there should be a trial of a regulated system of these theoretically debated ideas [32,35,36]. Omar [37] purported a combination of these proposals to enable the donor family to donate altruistically, accept funeral expenses or donate the money to charity. In practice, some of the debated ideas are policy as paid donation exists in Iran [38], priority on waiting lists is policy in Israel [39], tax incentives are given to living donors in the state of Louisiana, USA [40] and China are currently trialling a system where 'help' is given in the form of social welfare and 'thank you' is a form of gratitude given through the Red Cross Society of China [41].…”