From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Sun Apr 09 2000 - 01:26:39 MDT
Sasha Chislenko wrote:
>
> At 10:00 PM 00/04/07, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> >Sasha Chislenko wrote:
> > >
> > > Speaking of organ donation - did you see my MODS
> > > (Mutual Organ Donation Society) proposal?
> > >
> > > Any reason to think that it would not solve the organ donation problem?
> > >
> > > - See http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/articles/OrganDonation.html
> >
> >Good ideas. Make it a mutual benefit society, get a non-profit charity
> >incorporation, and you only need to donate 5% of the association's
> >organs to non-members to retain the non-profit tax deductible status.
> >Then the word gets out that you are 20 times more likely to get an organ
> >if you join the club...moreover, allow the person donating to deduct the
> >value of the organ from their income or probate taxes as a typical
> >charitable donation, and you have instant probate protection of a good
> >$250,000 to $1 million in assets when your estate is settled.
>
> Don't know how to calculate the value of an organ...
several criteria:
a) what is someone willing to pay for it at auction on ebay (last I
heard a kidney was attempted to be auctioned on ebat, and bidding
reached $14 million before it was pulled.)
b) what is a transplant center willing to pay for the organ. If you only
allow certified transplant centers to bid on organs, you could probably
contain bidding to a more 'reasonable' level. As more transplant centers
open, you will get more bidders, but I would imagine you would also get
more qualified suppliers as the system expands.
>
> This may be easier to arrange if there is a profit motive here as
> well - there may be some public/private partnerships opportunity here,
> but I am not an expert.
> Frankly, I think that a person who figures out how to solve the
> organ donation problem, should be able to benefit from it.
>
> How about making it a private company with viral marketing?
> Can you sign people up on the Web?
>
> Does anybody want to work with me on this, or know anybody who would?
>
> Can one leave conditional organ donation clauses:
> "my liver goes to a confirmed white Russian-speaking female atheist
> who joins MODS within 3 months from myself"?
I dunno, that might be construed as violating equal protection, and
violate a matter of equal membership in the society. However, if you
have a network that allows people to find their tissue matching partners
that need organs, you could name them as beneficiaries in your will.
However the gov't might try to impose a gift tax or some sort of
probate tax on the bequeathment. The first thing to do is to lobby
congress to make a probate loophole for organ donations. Once that is
done, you can work on the rest.
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