Canadians support paid organ donation: Study
Posted November 6, 2012 5:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new study suggests that if Canadians were to be paid, it could help boost organ donation rates, but not everyone is in favour of the idea.
Dr. Braden Manns from the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta told Maclean’s Magazine his research stemmed from a feeling that Canadians weren’t getting enough organs.
As a result, he began his study by interviewing 2,500 people, some of which included medical professionals and those affected by kidney disease. He found 70 per cent of them felt financial incentives were acceptable for the families of deceased donors, while 40 per cent would approve of compensation for living donors.
However, medical ethicist and the University of Manitoba’s Arthur Schafer disagrees, saying that paying for organs takes the gift out of the gift of life, and the data proves donation rates would actually be more likely to fall.
“The experience of countries that pay for blood has been very similar. We’ve got a lot of alcoholics and impoverished people donating blood, and others stop donating,” he explained.
“We need more generosity and altruism in society,” he added. “I think families should be approached and we need to work much harder at persuading the medical community and educating the medical community in how to approach families.”
Schafer thinks more needs to be done to encourage people to sign their donor cards.
A total of 285 Canadians died while waiting for an organ in 2011.
