Document Type

Capstone Project

Publication Date

2015

Publisher

Brookings Mountain West

Publisher Location

Las Vegas, Nevada

First page number:

1

Last page number:

30

Abstract

Organ donation shortages are a problem in Nevada. A shift in policy towards an opt-out system could more than double the number of registered organ donors in Nevada. A Libertarian Paternalistic strategy would allow potential donors to express their preference for organ donations more accurately. Currently Nevada abides by an opt-in policy where people are only organ donors if they explicitly request to become donors. Under an opt-out policy, people would be presumed organ donors unless they requested not to be donors. Policy changes during the 2015 Legislative session were a good start but failed to fully utilize behavioral economics to resolve the shortage. This paper aggregates studies determining how and why people make decisions, explores potential organ donation strategies, examines opinion polls, and explains organ markets and kidney transplants more generally to suggest Nevada shift to an opt-out model for organ donations. Reform to statewide donor policy is needed; at stake are the lives of Nevada citizens currently on the waiting list and those who will be added in the coming years

Keywords

Donation of organs; tissues; etc.; Medical policy; Nevada

Disciplines

Health Policy | Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

File Format

pdf

File Size

654 KB

Language

English

Comments

This is a student research paper, patterned on a Brookings Policy Brief, written under the supervision of a Brookings Scholar.

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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