Topic: Legalization and Standardization of Organ Donation (Read 361 times)

I think it's important to first learn how it's done these days to analyze the proposal. So I decided to read a bit about my country and some others, and here's what I learned: in Spain, there's a presumption of consent to become a donor after death, unless a person explicitly said they were against it. From what I read about the US, it's the opposite, but 54% of citizens sign agreements to become donors. Given that 95% support the idea in the US, I think what this country needs is simply the presumption of consent because it indeed makes sense where the vast majority supports it.
So it's already happening, and there are no financial incentives involved, no 'money upfront' or anything.
In my country, you can register as a potential donor in an event of your death, and there's no financial incentive to do this.
I'm not sure any country would provide a financial incentive for people to register, especially in the US, where 54% already registered.

I've had this idea in my head since 2019, what if it was legal in the US for people to get paid to become a donor.
2 years later, I think I've worked out a framework, but unfortunately it looks like I missed the cutoff date for state ballot initiative requests for the 2022 election cycle.

So here's my framework
Adopting a VC style of investment.
-people are paid a set price for the exclusive right per organ.
-they are given the money upfront, no exams needed
-there are no lifestyle restrictions
-the transplant only occurs after you die
-your estate is given equal or more money than you were given upfront
-if the organ is no longer viable, no big deal, just the cost of doing business. Your off the hook.
-if you change your mind, no big deal, pay back the money at 10% interest to remove your name off the list.
-you must be 18 years or older to apply
-you can enroll your children into the program. Same rules apply, money upfront, transplant only happens after death. On their 18th birthday, they are removed from the program, and have the option to re-enroll. If accepted, same rules apply.

The idea here is that there are over 100,000 people in US in need of transplants and not enough donors. Over 8,000 people die annually, with most waiting over 3 years. The longer they wait, the less productive they become, not including all the stress due to uncertainty.
My proposal is would provide cash upfront, work like the typical VC/Crypto model where you diversify and only need a small handful to breakeven.
The exclusive right would be sold to insurance companies or governments, who would pay 3-5x multiples.

Example 1
Jim, 20 years old, male, lives in Denver Colorado.
He sells us the exclusive right to both his kidney's for $500 each upfront.
We then sell the right to XYZ insurance company for $50,000 per kidney.
I'm assuming insurance companies would then sell term life organ policies to cover expenses.

This transaction is beneficial because insurance companies generally have to spend about $25,000 per year for some dialysis treatments which take up 10+ hours per week for the person in need of a transplant. We are filling the demand. And the cost of the transplant surgery wise is often $100-200,000 anyway. But because their policy holder becomes more productive and increased years to live, the insurance company can justify the expense. Plus based on public data, there are 33,244 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2019 in which 36,096 deaths occurred. This resulted in 11.0 deaths per 100,000 people and 1.11 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. The fatality rate per 100,000 people ranged from 3.3 in the District of Columbia to 25.4 in Wyoming. Also based on the numbers, it seems that men in the US begin to start dying in their 40's/50's, 10 years earlier than women. I want to avoid culture war issues and really focus on college kids and not the poor, I don't want this being seen as a payday lending scheme.

I'm working on the website now. Will start on the blockchain next month. The goal is to raise money to get this on the ballots of state elections for the 2024 Presidential election cycle. I want to amend the first line of the current law prohibiting the sale of organ donations after death. This is a felony currently. The average signature needed is about 100-300k per state and seems to be a huge undertaking. Do you guy's see the crypto community getting behind this effort either as early investors or joining the waitlist? What do you guys think of the concept overall.


Blockchain
-----------------------
Each transaction will be available in a blockchain. Those in need will know where in line they are, but the public won't know the names of said people, only the public ID's, and transaction codes.
-shows transaction data
--new donor registration, payout, removal, death
--donor recipient moving up in line, currently in surgery, successful transplant
--insurance company, policy sales

I have discussed several how to securely verify data, have it hashed and use it for authentication purposes on websites.

It could be done with zero proof knowledge or some other secured means I have outlined before.

If only the owner can access that data how the hell would that scheme work when both the poeple in need, the insurance company, the company making the connection between those need the data?
You storing some secret code in a blockchain that can't be read by others is useless, others need access to it, once you grant access to anybody else this can lead to leaks.


How can you verify the integrity of the data if the data is not checked to be accurate by somebody?
Unlike transactions in a chain where the origin of your coins is validated when they are minted in a new block how will this data be inserted in the chain? How will nodes verify you are an actual person, you are a citizen of that country, you actually are healthy enough to donate?

And most importantly, if you want to keep your data secret!!!!, how can others validate it?
You realize the contradiction in this?

A thoroughly encrypted data that only the owner can have access to should be better.

You think this can be guaranteed on a centralized database? Everyone running a node, controlling his/her private keys and always verifying the integrity of the data on the decentralized network sounds more secure to me.

Decentralize it because it's sensitive?
Why? It should be as close to the public as possible because of the risks involved!
Imagine that somebody is desperate for a relative transplant and knows that only 4 people are left in the queue before his turn, and he has all the data of the donors, what do you think is going to happen, poeple have been killed for a few hundred bucks, what price do you put on the life of a relative?
Especially since if he chooses carefully from the list chances are he will never be caught?


Care to explain why?
It's one thing to gain access to data and it's another to store that data safely.
Do you think the blockchain would prevent leaks just like so, because it's a blockchain?
Databases get hacked because somebody gets access to them, just like hackers and malware spreaders get the private keys of guys holding bitcoin, once they got access to that it doesn't matter what kind of database it is, the data will be retrieved.

Me too don't think it has to be Blockchain... what is important is the need to decentralize the processes due to its sensitive nature.

I don't believe centralized platform can offer that level of security.

When you let everyone donate to everyone as a law then it would become a bit of a problem because mafia and similar bad people end up either stealing organs from others and if not then they would simply pay for people a lot less and get it, rich people willing to pay 5k dollars for a kidney? Mafia would pay 3k to you and get yours and get 2k profit from it, do it for 10 people and you get 20k, do it for 100 people and you get 200k...

The risk also stands at you killing the participants as well. Say you paid 5k before they die, and 5k after they die to their relatives or whatever, how would they know 100% that you will not kill them? Sure you could randomize it, sometimes it is 7 years 312 days, sometimes it is a week later, sometimes 2 years 123 days, but as long as they die at young age, or even from anything really then how would they really know if that person died normally?

There are also situations where you won't get anything, for example my mother in law has cancer now, she "beat it" technically but she still has it in her blood and she could get it again any moment, could be tomorrow or could be 5 years later we do not know, hence she can't donate organs because if she does then the new person may have it too, and you would technically kill that person a little later. So if you pay someone 20 years old money to get their organs after they die, then that person may end up getting cancer at old age and their organs would be worth zero.

The initial target group are college students aged 18-25. This group is seen by the public as generally informed and with social mobility and capital. I do not intend my operation to become predatory and solely relying on low income or minority groups. That's bad press and terrible morally. At first I thought $5000 upfront and $5000 after death but a government official who works at USAID convinced me I could get away with offering people way less since its upfront and nothing is required of them, so this is where the $500 figure came from. $500 to a 40-50 year old is not much, lets be honest, but to someone under 30, could be significant. Especially considering I expect them to sell rights to multiple organs.

I don't really think that you really need blockchain technology in order to implement this idea,OP.
A simple database can do the same work.
Anyway,I don't think that creating a marketplace for human organs is humane and/or morally justified.
Mostly likely all the criminals/gangsters/mobsters will take advantage of such "marketplace" by killing more people and selling their organs.
I better solution would be the state to make it mandatory for all people to declare their will to donate their organs after their death.Most of the transplantation recipients don't have any money to buy a human organ.
I know that you want to make a business out of this idea,but this doesn't seem right.
You should focus on other business ideas.

America already has lots of problems with poverty, inequality and absurdly expensive health care, legalizing organ selling is like adding oil to the fire, poor people will have no choice but to give away their health for money. A better solution is to just make every deceased person an organ donor, with an option to opt out of this program for the paranoid people, making them ineligible to receive organs in exchange.

And what does the blockchain solve in this situation? If someone wants to cheat in this system and has a power to do so, they would still do it. They can create fake identities and put them into the queue, for example.

Here in India, it is illegal for individuals who are not related to the patient to donate their organs. As a result, tens of thousands die every year, from ailments to kidney and liver. Three years ago there was no such rule, and poor people used to get exploited by the middle men and forced in to selling their organs. But now the situation is even worse. Even those who want to donate organs on their own free will are prevented by the law from doing that. I fully support any initiative, which compensates organ donors financially.

The initial target group are college students aged 18-25. This group is seen by the public as generally informed and with social mobility and capital.

$500 to a 40-50 year old is not much, lets be honest, but to someone under 30, could be significant. Especially considering I expect them to sell rights to multiple organs. Also, 40% of Americans have less than $400 in emergency savings according to the US Federal Reserve.

And I want to re-emphasize this, you can take your name off the list at anytime, you just have to pay back the amount give at a 10% annual interest rate from the time you borrowed it, up to 30 years.

I'm a bit surprised how resistant people are of this

And in just one page this went from saving lives to making a whole shitload of money...
It's now pretty understandable why some poeple have expressed their concerns previously, the focus of this is money, making money by selling stuff that in a normal society that has a serious problem with it should be donated at death.

Again:


Seriously, do you know how this would sound while you're pitching your project to investors? You're going to hear the mice's hiccups 10 floors below after this.

Anyhow, if you think poeple who take care of their own health so they might still be considered as donors at 40-50 are going to sell you the rights for 500$, you live in a bubble. The ones that will grab this cash will probably be rejected even for blood donation.

In China, it was legal to harvest the organs of the executed. This obviously creates a perverse incentive of the system to sentence to death more people - not that they really need much incentive.