Introduction: Toward a New Model of Incentives for Organ Donation

Abstract

This introductory chapter outlines the background and rationale of the research covered in this book. It first highlights the significance of the organ shortage problem in contemporary society and explains why a research approach to seek comprehensively good incentives for organ donation has several merits that other approaches do not. It then explains the meanings of the three types of organ donation incentive (honorary, compensationalist, and familist) and the theoretical logic underlying the concepts of “practical effectiveness,” “ethical justifiability,” and “political legitimacy” that support the approach. This is followed by a summary of key findings in relation to each of the three types of incentive in each of the societies examined and further reflections on them, as well as how a new model of incentives that contemporary societies can adopt to optimize organ donations can be constructed.