Explaining individual level support for organ procurement policy

• The scarcity of available organs for transplantation in the U.S. has become a serious public health issue.
• Voluntarism and altruism form the basis of current organ procurement policy.
• Better understanding mass opinion is an important prerequisite for considering the use of incentives in organ procurement.
• Political ideology, gender, age and geographic region are important predictors of support.

The demand for human organs for transplantation – both from live and deceased donors – has become a public health issue in the United States, as thousands of Americans die each year due to the lack of a needed transplant. The current policy basis for organ procurement is voluntarism as federal organ procurement policy, based on the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA), prohibits the exchange of human organs for “valuable consideration.” While an increasing number of policy analysts, including some ethicists, have advocated for financial incentives to induce more donations, a variety of factors – such as the legislative status quo, ongoing ethical concerns, and uncertain public support – have resulted in little use of financial incentives. We argue that a better understanding of public opinion is an important prerequisite for any move toward the use of financial incentives. Consequently, we develop and test a model to explain individual level attitudes toward legalizing and regulating the sale of human organs for transplant. We find that political ideology, gender, age and geographic region are important predictors of support.