Thursday, December 17, 2015

American Medical Association adopts resolution calling for increased incentives for organ donation

I'm not completely clear on the parliamentary procedures of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates, but Frank McCormick draws my attention to a recently passed resolution:
RESOLUTION 007 - REMOVING DISINCENTIVES AND  STUDYING THE USE OF INCENTIVES TO INCREASE  THE NATIONAL ORGAN DONOR POOL

The AMA site itself requires a login, but here's an ungated site with an account of the resolution:

"Unanimous testimony was offered in support of the medical student resolution* to remove disincentives and study the use of incentives to increase the national organ donor pool. Misery and disability due to lack of organs is evidenced every day in our practices. The HOD voted first to support a study on use of incentives, including valuable consideration, second to eliminate disincentives and third to remove legal barriers to research investigating the use of incentives."


*Here's the draft of the resolution as initially submitted: 


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But don't get too excited,  the working group on The Delivery System reporting in The Surgeon General's Workshop on Increasing Organ Donation held in. July 1991  also recommended removing disincentives and studying the possible use of incentives to increase organ donation.

p59: "RECOMMENDATIONS
II-A.1 Maintain the current approach of organ and tissue donation based on
voluntary, altruistic choice and family participation, but continue to explore the
potential impact of possible alternative approaches, such as financial incentives and presumed consent.
II-A.l.Str.1: DHHS should support the collection and further analysis of
existing data on the attitudes of the public as well as those involved in the
donation process regarding the issues of financial incentives and presumed
consent. "

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