(Press-News.org) As the United States faces transplant waiting lists that continue to grow longer over time, there is increasing debate about the proper way to incentivize living donations. Transplant professionals are trying to find ways to eliminate any financial disincentives without crossing the line to paying for organs. A new article published in the American Journal of Transplantation highlights possible solutions discussed by leaders within the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) at a recent workshop.
Due to organ shortages, thousands of Americans are on transplant waiting lists for 5 or more years as their health deteriorates, and more than 1,000 of them die each year. The AST and ASTS leaders have conceived an "arc of change" that starts with immediate work to remove all financial disincentives to organ donation for both living and deceased donors. They also believe that solving the organ shortage will require more action than simply removing disincentives.
"As we follow the arc of change from removing disincentives like loss of wages and travel costs, we must move to considering incentives for donation like health insurance post-donation to ensure the long-term safety of donors," said lead author Daniel Salomon, MD, of The Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla. "However, when speaking in terms of removing disincentives and considering incentives, there is little agreement on exactly where the line exists separating the two." Dr. Salomon, who helped organize the workshop with Alan Langnas, DO, of the University of Nebraska, noted that it is important to involve a wide range of stakeholders--including physicians and surgeons, government officials, patients and families, ethicists, and legal scholars--in discussions on how to define that line.
Some individuals may feel that any kind of financial payment, including health insurance provision, is off the table for ethical reasons or because it could gravely damage the current organ donor process that is based on altruism. Dr. Salomon and his colleagues feel that such viewpoints may be too simplistic, and they would like to see studies designed to cautiously but effectively determine the true potential and impact of incentives of different kinds in the United States. "Which of our current assumptions are true, what innovations will be effective, what unintended consequences (including impacts internationally) will be realized, and what will ultimately be acceptable in legal, ethical and personal terms? Answering these questions should be the purpose of well-designed and critically reviewed pilot projects," they wrote.
An accompanying viewpoint article provides an ethical justification for conducting a pilot study of a federally regulated approach to providing financial incentives to living kidney donors, with the goal of assessing donors' perceptions. A second accompanying viewpoint, however, states that if human organs become commodities they will most certainly be obtained from the most financially vulnerable in society. Therefore, instead of introducing payments or incentives, the authors believe that the number of organs available for transplantation should be increased only by removing all financial disincentives for organ donation.
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This news release is available in French. In addition to their physical injuries, women who are victims of domestic violence are also at a greater risk of mental health problems such as depression and psychotic symptoms. These are the findings of a study that was just published by a team of researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London in England, the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (IUSMM), and the University of Montreal.
"We studied the impact of domestic violence on the risk of mental ...
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Findings published in the January issue of The Clinical Journal of Pain indicate that obese individuals who suffer from osteoarthritis and have adequate vitamin D levels could walk, balance and rise from sitting to standing better than obese participants with insufficient vitamin ...
Humans have been inspired by nature since the beginning of time. We mimic nature to develop new technologies, with examples ranging from machinery to pharmaceuticals to new materials. Planes are modelled on birds and many drugs have their origins in plants. Researchers at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering have taken it a step further: in order to develop an extremely sensitive temperature sensor they took a close look at temperature-sensitive plants. However, they did not mimic the properties of the plants; instead, they developed a hybrid material that ...
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A study of peanut consumption showed that including them as a part of a high fat meal improved the post-meal triglyceride response and preserved endothelial function.
"Peanuts are a healthy snack when eaten as part of a healthy diet," said lead researcher Xiaoran Liu, a graduate student in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University.
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MADISON - Research has discovered a role for prolactin, the hormone that stimulates milk production in nursing mothers, in the bond between parents.
The study relied on hormone analyses of urine from cotton-top tamarins, a small, endangered monkey native to Colombia. They live in monogamous family groups where both parents help care for the young, which is similar to humans.
The study found a link between prolactin levels and sexual activity and cuddling among paired adults. Although this was a first for prolactin, it has previously been found for oxytocin, a hormone ...
