Ethical and Policy Issues Arising in Crowdfunding for Solid Organ Transplantation: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Recipient and Donor Fundraising Campaigns.
Autor: | Mallepeddi S; University of Michigan Hospital, Ann Arbor, MI, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY., Patel PD; University of Michigan Hospital, Ann Arbor, MI, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY., D'Amico C; Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI., Thiessen C; Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. Electronic address: thiessen@surgery.wisc.edu. |
---|---|
Jazyk: | angličtina |
Zdroj: | Transplantation proceedings [Transplant Proc] 2024 Jul-Aug; Vol. 56 (6), pp. 1216-1221. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 15. |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.transproceed.2024.03.040 |
Abstrakt: | Background: Solid organ transplantation improves the quality of life for patients but has significant out-of-pocket expenses for donors and recipients in the USA, leading many to utilize crowdfunding for donations to cover expenses. We sought to characterize crowdfunding for transplant patients and to identify ethical and policy issues. Methods: We obtained newspaper articles that described crowdfunding campaigns for organ transplant patients from Nexis-Uni. Using Nvivo, we identified and analyzed article details, patient characteristics, features of campaigns, additional fundraisers, and policy and ethical issues related to crowdfunding. Results: Most sources were published between 2015 and 2020. Of 231 patients identified, 43% were thoracic organ recipients and 42% were kidney recipients. GoFundMe was the most popular platform. 78% of patients reported at least one intended use of crowdfunding; medical expenses were the most cited reason. Ten percent of articles described at least one ethical or policy consideration related to crowdfunding for organ transplant. Concerns included violations of federal laws prohibiting donors from receiving "valuable consideration" for an organ, taxation of funds, loss of Medicaid or disability benefits, accountability for fund usage, and crowdfunding requirements for organ waiting list placement. In several cases, transplants were delayed due to crowdfunding concerns. Conclusions: Our findings reveal crowdfunding characteristics and financial barriers present among transplant patients. Furthermore, our study suggests that the ethical and policy implications for crowdfunding in the transplant population are not yet adequately assessed. National regulations and transplant center policies may need to be modified to address issues raised by patient crowdfunding. Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) |
Databáze: | MEDLINE |
Externí odkaz: |