...An Ethical Course for...Financial Incentives for Living Kidney Donation

[Clark]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.13234/abstract

Between Scylla and Charybdis: Charting an Ethical Course for Research Into Financial Incentives for Living Kidney Donation
J. S. Fisher1, Z. Butt2, J. Friedewald3, S. Fry-Revere4,5, J. Hanneman6, M. L. Henderson7, K. Ladin8,9,10, H. Mysel11, L. Preczewski12, L. A. Sherman13, C. Thiessen14 andE. J. Gordon15,*
American Journal of Transplantation
Article first published online: 31 MAR 2015
DOI: 10.1111/ajt.13234

New approaches to address the kidney scarcity in the United States are urgently needed. The greatest potential source of kidneys is from living donors. Proposals to offer financial incentives to increase living kidney donation rates remain highly controversial. Despite repeated calls for a pilot study to assess the impact of financial compensation on living kidney donation rates, many fear that financial incentives will exploit vulnerable individuals and cast the field of transplantation in a negative public light, ultimately reducing donation rates. This paper 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.

[Clark]

I'm considering writing a response to this. Any co-authors interested?