Incentivizing Authorization for Deceased Organ Donation With Organ Allocation Priority: The First 5 Years. Issue 9 (26th May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stoler, A.; Kessler, J. B.; Ashkenazi, T.; Roth, A. E.; Lavee, J.
• Is Part Of: American journal of transplantation. Volume 16:Issue 9(2016:Sep.)
• Page Start: 2639
• Page End: 2645
• Publication Date: 2016-05-26
• Subjects: ethics and public policy -- law/legislation -- organ transplantation in general -- donors and donation: deceased -- donors and donation: incentives -- organ procurement; Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc -- Periodicals; 617.95
• DOI: 10.1111/ajt.13802
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1600-6135

Abstract

Abstract : The allocation system of donor organs for transplantation may affect their scarcity. In 2008, Israel's Parliament passed the Organ Transplantation Law, which grants priority on waiting lists for transplants to candidates who are first‐degree relatives of deceased organ donors or who previously registered as organ donors themselves. Several public campaigns have advertised the existence of the law since November 2010. We evaluated the effect of the law using all deceased donation requests made in Israel during the period 1998–2015. We use logistic regression to compare the authorization rates of the donors' next of kin in the periods before (1998–2010) and after (2011–2015) the public was made aware of the law. The authorization rate for donation in the period after awareness was substantially higher (55.1% vs. 45.0%, odds ratio [OR] 1.43, p = 0.0003) and reached an all‐time high rate of 60.2% in 2015. This increase was mainly due to an increase in the authorization rate of next of kin of unregistered donors (51.1% vs. 42.2%). We also found that the likelihood of next‐of‐kin authorization for donation was approximately twice as high when the deceased relative was a registered donor rather than unregistered (89.4% vs. 44.6%, OR 14.27, p < 0.0001). We concluded that the priority law is associated with an increased authorization rate for organ donation. Abstract : The introduction of an Israeli policy granting deceased organ donors' next‐of‐kin priority on organ waiting lists is strongly associated with an increase in the next‐of‐kin authorization rate for organ donation. See page 2512 for Goldberg and Trotter's editorial.