A Cooperative System for Anatomical Gifts

Christopher Tarver Robertson (Academic Fellow, The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School) has recently published his article entitled From Free Riders to Fairness: A Cooperative System for Organ Transplantation, 48 Jurimetrics J. 1 (2007).

Here is the abstract of his article:

Nearly 100,000 people are waiting for organ transplants, and 7,300 die each year. Meanwhile, useable cadaveric organs are destroyed, since the status quo “altruistic” system for procuring organs fails to cajole a sufficient number of donors. New survey evidence suggests that donor rates could be increased by linking the decisions to give and take organs. Indeed, justice requires such a linkage to prevent free riding. Even on its own terms, the status quo system is unsound. The rhetoric of altruism is philosophically inapposite to cadaveric donation. Rather than autonomous choices, the current system depends on defaults and proxies, which fail to honor choices made. To resolve these problems, I propose a cooperative system where individuals would decide, from behind a veil of ignorance, whether to be both potential suppliers and potential recipients of cadaveric organs. Such a system would respect autonomy, resolve the injustice, and minimize the shortage.