Back to The Undercover Economist homepage
Gordon Brown is considering introducing a system of "presumed consent" for organ donations: unless you opt out, you’re in. I dislike the idea of presumed consent intensely. Were I to "presume consent" for publicly exposing myself (I’ll put it away if you tell me to, of course) I doubt the judge would be amused.
The obvious - and sadly unacceptable - solution is a market for organ donations. I discussed moral objections to that here, and Al Roth’s clever quasi market of "matched donations" here.
Andrew Oswald has a proposal that is likely to have very similar effect to GB’s, but much more respectful of liberty: a tax deduction for anyone who agrees to be on the organ donation register. Just tick a box on your tax return. Oswald suspects the sums involved would have to be fairly small; he may be right. I’d rather find out than shift to a system of presumed consent.
Tim writes about the economics of everyday life. His 