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University of Baltimore Law Review

Abstract

Organ donation, a medically perfected procedure, affords a second chance at life for many people. Unfortunately, organ transplantation demonstrates the stark reality of supply and demand. Thousands of individuals are added to the transplant list each day, but many more die during the same time frame waiting for new organs. The solution to this dilemma seems simple: increase the supply. This article will discuss several ways to achieve this goal. First, through the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act, which allows for HIV-positive-to-HIV-positive transplants, more transplantable organs will hopefully be available in the future. Second, the supply of organs may increase by changing the standards of organ donation from irreversible loss of brain function to irreversible loss of cardiac function. Third, educating individuals, especially minorities, about donation and the regionally based system for transplants may result in a larger number of matching donors and a greater number of potential recipients on multiple transplant lists. Finally, efforts such as payments and advertising for organs, giving priority transplants to registered donors, and even confronting the disparate number of elderly donors whose organs are never transplanted, may result in an increase in the organ supply.

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