Boosting organ donations ultimate focus of initiative

The AMA voted at its Annual Meeting to put its "moral weight" behind the study of financial incentives for donating organs.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. July 8/15, 2002.

After intense debate, the AMA House of Delegates approved a report calling for a study of what motivates people to donate organs and whether "modest" financial incentives would prompt more people to donate.

If studies do prove that financial incentives increase donations and if laws are changed to allow them, then -- theoretically at least -- a woman who died almost 16 years ago would become partly responsible for saving thousands of lives.

This woman, who was 32 when she died of a brain aneurysm, was an organ donor. Dallas orthopedic surgeon Phil Berry Jr., MD, received her liver. Dr. Berry had contracted hepatitis B from a patient. He had been told that, unless he received a transplant, he would be dead in three weeks.

Now, almost 20 years later, Dr. Berry was taking every opportunity to tell his story to both other physicians and reporters at the AMA Annual Meeting.

"He's a very powerful example of transplantation and what it means," said AMA Trustee Duane Cady, MD, a surgeon from New York.

"There's no question in my mind that his testimony helped put a face on the problem," said Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs member Robert M. Sade, MD, a Charleston, S.C., surgeon. "He knows what it's like to be waiting to die unless an organ becomes available. His testimony was pretty powerful."

Dr. Berry has dedicated his life to increasing awareness of the need for more organ donations. His testimony may have helped sway delegates to endorse the controversial plan to study whether financial incentives will persuade more people to become organ donors. [...]