Kidney Credits Would Bring Life to Tax Reform | Economics21

Kidney Credits Would Bring Life to Tax Reform | Economics21:
"By tomorrow at this time, twelve people will have died waiting for a kidney transplant. 
There are 500,000 people with end-stage renal failure and approximately 100,000 people are on the waiting list for kidneys.
Approximately 20,000 people are waiting for hearts, livers, and lungs. 19,061 kidney transplants were performed in 2016.
The numbers queued for kidneys are so high because patients with renal failure can exist for years on dialysis -- a thrice weekly process that cleanses the blood of toxins for four hours per session – while those with liver and lung failure die relatively quickly without a transplant.
The organ shortage has existed since the national organ procurement and distribution system established by the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 (NOTA) became operational.
The problem is simply that there are not enough donors.
Kidneys can be donated, but they must be given for free.
NOTA permits reimbursement for donor expenses and some states allow income tax deductions and credits for those expenses, but those measures have not been sufficient to generate the donations that are needed
NOTA was adopted with noble intentions.
The goal was to prevent a situation in which only wealthier patients could afford to buy organs and where poor donors might become “suppliers” for the well-off.
More than enough time has elapsed to conclude that an altruism-only system is sorely inadequate..."
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