Increasing Consent for Organ Donation: Mandated Choice, Individual Autonomy, and Informed Consent
![handle is hein.journals/hmax21 and id is 603 raw text is: INCREASING CONSENT FOR ORGAN
DONATION: MANDATED CHOICE,
INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY, AND
INFORMED CONSENT
Hayley Cottert
INTRODUCTION
As of April 13, 2011, there were 110,758 individuals on the wait-
ing list for an organ transplant in the United States.' The number of
waiting list candidates greatly exceeds the number of available organs,
and the gap between needed and available organs grows wider every
year.2 While the need for organs is growing five times faster than the
number of available organs, rates of organ donation have remained
stable.3 In fact, individuals whose organs are suitable for donation at
their time of death may outnumber actual donors by more than three
to one.4 As a result, many individuals on the waiting list die before
they receive an organ; indeed, as many as sixty percent of candidates
t J.D. Candidate, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, 2011;
B.A., Boston University, 2008. I would like to thank Professor Sharona Hoffman for
her guidance throughout the writing process. I also would like to thank Nick Pompeo
for his patience and sense of humor through many hours of editing, and my family for
their love and constant support.
I UNITED NETWORK FOR ORGAN SHARING, http://www.unos.org/ (last visited
Mar. 10, 2011).
2 Tom Farsides, Winning Hearts and Minds: Using Psychology to Promote
Voluntary Organ Donation, 8 HEALTH CARE ANALYSIS 101, 102 (2000); Sheldon F.
Kurtz & Michael J. Saks, The Transplant Paradox: Overwhelming Public Support for
Organ Donation vs. Under-Supply of Organs: The Iowa Organ Procurement Study,
21 J. CORP. L. 767, 768 (1996).
A PRIMER FOR HEALTH CARE ETHICS: ESSAYS FOR A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY
163 (Kevin O'Rourke ed., 2d ed. 2000) [hereinafter A PRIMER FOR HEALTH CARE
ETHICS]; Joseph L. Verheijde et al., Recovery of Transplantable Organs After Cardiac
or Circulatory Death: Transforming the Paradigm for the Ethics of Organ Donation,
PHIL. ETHICS & HUMAN. MED. (2007), http://www.peh-med.com/content/pdf/1747-
5341-2-8.pdf. The waiting list is growing at a rate of twelve percent per year.
RICHARD H. THALER & CASS R. SUNSTEIN, NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT
HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS 177 (rev. and expanded ed., 2009).
4 Susan E. Herz, Two Steps to Three Choices: A New Approach to Mandat-
ed Choice, 8 CAMBRIDGE Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 340, 340 (1999).
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Increasing Consent for Organ Donation: Mandated Choice, Individual Autonomy, and Informed Consent
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