 Where do human organs come from? Trends of generalized and restricted altruism in organ donationsHagai Boas Social Science & Medicine, 2011, vol. 73, issue 9, 1378-1385 Abstract: The supply of human organs for transplantation is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Using data from 30 countries for the years 1995–2007, this paper suggests that organ supply today is more dependent on direct donations than on the collective organ pool. This trend is analyzed by studying different modes of altruism: “generalized altruism” relates to the procurement of organs through a one-for-all collectivized system of donations whereas “restricted altruism” relates to one-to-one donations with organs considered personal gifts. The data suggest that transplants are becoming less and less social goods and more and more personal gifts. This trend is documented and discussed in light of the linkage that social scientists hypothesize between altruism and social solidarity. Whereas altruism is conceived as generating social solidarity, the rise in direct organ donations restricts the effect of altruism to one-to-one interactions rather than one-for-all giving. Keywords: Organ donations; Altruism; Social solidarity; Organ trade; Cross-national comparison; Health policy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:9:p:1378-1385 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.07.028 Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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