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State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship

Organ transplantation saves the lives of thousands of patients worldwide every year. However, a chronic organ shortage overshadows this success. We define the organ shortage as a public health problem due to its serious consequences on patients and society. This definition raises the question of the...

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Autor principal: Levy, Mélanie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121056/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30191071
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsy009
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author Levy, Mélanie
author_facet Levy, Mélanie
author_sort Levy, Mélanie
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description Organ transplantation saves the lives of thousands of patients worldwide every year. However, a chronic organ shortage overshadows this success. We define the organ shortage as a public health problem due to its serious consequences on patients and society. This definition raises the question of the state's role in transplantation medicine. It leads us to formulate a public policy promoting organ donation through state incentives, ie regulatory instruments to reward individuals’ willingness to donate. Incentives allow the state to express gratitude for the solidary act of the donor toward the recipient and society. In an original approach, we integrate sociological findings as to the act of donation—the concept of reciprocity most importantly—into the core attributes of such a public policy. Addressing regulatory design questions, we present incentives such as allocation priority, tax benefits, health insurance discounts, and coverage of funeral costs. We also examine the unique non-financial incentive successfully implemented in Israel. We then discuss the legal and ethical framework in which state incentives have to operate, concluding that normative constraints can be addressed through law reform. Finally, we focus on aspects neglected so far in public information campaigns and discuss the interaction between state policy and public opinion.
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spelling pubmed-61210562018-09-06 State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship Levy, Mélanie J Law Biosci Original Article Organ transplantation saves the lives of thousands of patients worldwide every year. However, a chronic organ shortage overshadows this success. We define the organ shortage as a public health problem due to its serious consequences on patients and society. This definition raises the question of the state's role in transplantation medicine. It leads us to formulate a public policy promoting organ donation through state incentives, ie regulatory instruments to reward individuals’ willingness to donate. Incentives allow the state to express gratitude for the solidary act of the donor toward the recipient and society. In an original approach, we integrate sociological findings as to the act of donation—the concept of reciprocity most importantly—into the core attributes of such a public policy. Addressing regulatory design questions, we present incentives such as allocation priority, tax benefits, health insurance discounts, and coverage of funeral costs. We also examine the unique non-financial incentive successfully implemented in Israel. We then discuss the legal and ethical framework in which state incentives have to operate, concluding that normative constraints can be addressed through law reform. Finally, we focus on aspects neglected so far in public information campaigns and discuss the interaction between state policy and public opinion. Oxford University Press 2018-05-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6121056/ /pubmed/30191071 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsy009 Text en The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Duke University School of Law, Harvard Law School, Oxford University Press, and Stanford Law School. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Original Article
Levy, Mélanie
State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship
title State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship
title_full State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship
title_fullStr State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship
title_full_unstemmed State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship
title_short State incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship
title_sort state incentives to promote organ donation: honoring the principles of reciprocity and solidarity inherent in the gift relationship
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121056/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30191071
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsy009
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