The cost of procuring market-inalienable human organs

The principal regulatory instrument and the defining feature of organ procurement in the United States is a ban on markets. This study finds the average variable cost of procuring organ donations to have been $1,650 per organ in 1990. Virtually no difference is found between more and less successful procurement organizations in obtaining consent from next-of-kin; what distinguishes successful organizations is their ability to generate more and better quality referrals. These data suggest that procuring organs by donation may be cheap and that more procurement effort might yield more donations. The findings imply that it may be the obstacles to adequate effort, rather than the inefficiency of appeals to donor altruism, that are responsible for shortages.I am grateful to Alvin Klevorick, Susan Rose-Ackerman, and Joel Waldfogel for their many comments and suggestions and to the staff of the Washington Regional Transplant Consortium, especially Laurie Brigham, for allowing me access to the internal workings of a procurement organization. I would like to thank Judy Braslow for suggesting the data set that made the project possible and Sylvie Muldoon for her patient explanations that gave context to the data.