Organ donors

2010-03-16

Some articles report that in Israel, people who have already subscribed to be voluntary organ donors can get priority over others should they need an organ themselves.

It struck me how obvious this solution is in its simplicity and fairness.

Of course there needs to be a secure way to know that the donors were volunteers before getting sick themselves, and severity and urgency should remain part of the equation, but all else being equal, giving priority to volunteer donors makes a lot of sense.

When can we see this implemented in other countries? I’m pretty sure it would raise the number of organ donors pretty significantly and save more lives in the long term.