(Press-News.org) Every day, 17 Americans die while waiting for an organ transplant. Opt-out organ donation policies, which enroll everyone into post-mortem donation programs by default unless people choose to opt out, have been touted as a way to increase the supply of desperately needed organs. But opt-out organ donation policies may reduce living organ donations, leaving systems no better supplied with lifesaving organs.
Pascal Güntürkün and colleagues analyzed epidemiological data from 24 countries between 2000–2023 and conducted four experimental studies with over 5,000 participants to examine how switching from opt-in to opt-out organ donation policies affects both deceased and living donor rates. The authors found that while opt-out policies led to a non-significant increase in deceased donors of 1.21 people per million population, the policies significantly decreased living donors by 4.59 people per million population—a 29% reduction. Through experimental and comparisons between Germany (opt-in) and Austria (opt-out), the authors demonstrated that this crowding-out effect primarily affects so-called “altruistic donations" to acquaintances and strangers, rather than donations to family members. People living in countries with opt-out systems perceive organ supply as sufficient, and are consequently less willing to become living donors. According to the authors, the findings reveal the unintended consequences of a public policy nudge and suggest that policymakers should consider potential crowding-out effects when implementing opt-out organ donation systems.
END
Opt-out organ donation policies might reduce organ supply
2025-10-28
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Message from the oldest-living dogs to dogs and men: Gonad function fights frailty
2025-10-28
West Lafayette, Ind. – Frailty threatens older individuals because it increases their vulnerability to detrimental health outcomes, such as falling, longer hospitalization, or even shortened life expectancy. New research exploring the linkage between frailty and mortality risk points to retaining gonad function as a potent strategy to fight late-life frailty.
The study conducted by scientists at the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation’s Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies was published last week in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Scientific Reports.
The ...
Distinct brain features in football players may tell who is at risk of long-term traumatic disease
2025-10-28
Brain scans from American football players reveal subtle differences in the brain’s outer grooves when compared to scans from otherwise healthy men who never played contact or collision sports, a new study shows. Its authors say the findings could potentially predict which people are more at risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Like many neurodegenerative diseases, CTE is known to worsen over time, and it afflicts many who play contact and collision sports that involve repeated hits to the head. Popular contact sports include soccer and basketball, while common collision sports are ...
Identifying safer implant designs for total hip replacement
2025-10-28
As populations continue to age, total hip replacement (THR) is becoming an increasingly common surgical procedure. Experts estimate that approximately one million THRs are performed each year worldwide. The surgery is often life-changing, as it can fully restore the function of the hip joint, reduce pain, and allow patients to walk and bear weight again. However, as with any major surgery, the procedure is not without risks, especially for older individuals with other health conditions.
A significant complication following THR is a femoral fracture—a break in the thigh bone near the artificial hip joint. This ...
Study reveals clinical frailty scale as a quick predictor of patient risk after heart failure administration
2025-10-28
Frailty is closely linked to adverse outcomes in older adults, particularly those with heart failure. Numerous epidemiologic studies show that frailty has important prognostic value in this population, underscoring the need for routine assessment. At the same time, the concept of frailty has expanded beyond the physical domain to include cognitive and other dimensions, making comprehensive evaluation increasingly complex and less feasible in everyday practice. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) offers a practical alternative: a 9-point, bedside, visually assessed tool that can be completed in minutes. However, key questions remain—how closely ...
Game-changing heat shield to revolutionize aerospace manufacturing with long-life engines
2025-10-28
Aerospace industry has undergone tremendous developments over the last century, with materials science engineers playing a significant role in this transformation. It is well known that as the operating temperature of metallic materials increases, the speed of aircraft can be enhanced and fuel consumption can be reduced. Therefore, research on high-temperature materials has been directly linked to the improvement of aircraft performance and has been actively conducted worldwide since the 1940s.
For more than 80 years, Ni-based alloys have been the primary materials used for high-temperature applications. To enable their use at even higher temperatures, ...
Pusan National University researchers show how AI can help in fashion trend prediction
2025-10-28
Fashion trend forecasting helps companies predict which clothes will be popular in upcoming seasons. Traditionally, this has relied on experts’ intuition, experience and creativity. More recently, big-data analysis has been incorporated, offering deeper insights into consumer behavior. However, such methods pose technical barriers and remain out of reach for fashion students or small brands.
Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) can balance the scales. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have made big data analysis readily available to the public. LLMs draw ...
Sinking Indian megacities pose 'alarming' building damage risks
2025-10-28
Sinking land is quietly destabilizing urban infrastructure in India’s largest cities, putting thousands of buildings and millions of people at risk, according to Virginia Tech scientists.
Groundwater overuse is a critical driver of the problem, said Susanna Werth, assistant professor of geosciences who co-authored the paper published Oct. 28 in Nature Sustainability.
“When cities pump more water from aquifers than nature can replenish, the ground quite literally sinks,” Werth said. “Our study shows that this overexploitation ...
Cul-de-sac effect: Why Mediterranean regions are becoming more prone to extreme floods in a changing climate
2025-10-28
Key Messages
In May 2023, devastating floods hit Emilia-Romagna, causing deaths, displacement, and estimated damages of €8.5 billion.
Cul-de-sac effect: The CMCC research team described for the first time how a specific configuration of mountain topography and circulation patterns trapped moisture coming from the Adriatic, while a stationary cyclone fueled prolonged rains that lasted for several days over the same area, leading to extreme flooding.
From the analysis of the Emilia-Romagna case, the ...
Now in 3D, maps begin to bring exoplanets into focus
2025-10-28
ITHACA, N.Y. – Astronomers have generated the first three-dimensional map of a planet orbiting another star, revealing an atmosphere with distinct temperature zones – one so scorching that it breaks down water vapor, a team co-led by a Cornell expert reports in new research.
The temperature map of WASP-18b – a gas giant known as an “ultra-hot Jupiter,” located 400 light years from Earth – is the first applying a technique called 3D eclipse mapping, or spectroscopic eclipse mapping. The effort builds on a 2D model that members of the same team published in 2023, which demonstrated eclipse mapping’s potential ...
Researchers develop an ultrasound probe capable of imaging an entire organ in 4D
2025-10-28
For the first time, a team of Inserm researchers from the Physics for Medicine Institute (Inserm/ESPCI Paris-PSL/CNRS) has succeeded in mapping the blood flow of an entire organ in animals (heart, kidney and liver) with great precision, in four dimensions: 3D + time. This new imaging technique, when applied to humans, could both improve our understanding of the circulatory system (veins, arteries, vessels and lymphatic system) and facilitate the diagnosis of certain blood circulation-related diseases. These results are published ...