Encouraging Blood and Organ Donation Through Tax Credits

Joseph B. Clamon (McDermott Will & Emery, Chicago) has published Tax Policy as a Lifeline: Encouraging Blood and Organ Donation Through Tax Credits, 17 Annals Health L. 67 (2008).  Here is the Conclusion:

The demand for blood and human organs will continue to grow as society's ability to save and improve lives by transplanting more parts of the body increases. To have any chance of meeting the ever-increasing level of demand for blood and organs, the current donation system must be modified to encourage donation in order to substantially increase the quantity of available healthy, compatible blood and organs. Some individuals, such as pure altruists, "would donate without any external stimulus," while others would never donate regardless of the incentives offered. Some may be attracted to a direct compensation system, but many people vehemently object to such an outright offer of remuneration. A reasonable alternative is the use of a tax credit as an incentive to "attract the attention of those potential donors who wouldn't be willing to sell their blood in a purely commercial transaction" but who would accept favorable tax treatment as a "token of public appreciation of their generosity." It may even "arouse existing but dormant inclinations toward altruism." For these reasons, tax credits are an effective, ethically acceptable, and perhaps even ethically preferable means of encouraging blood and organ donation.