William DeJong; Jessica Drachman; Steven L. Gortmaker; Carol Beasley; Michael J. Evanisko. Options for Increasing Organ Donation: The Potential Role of Financial Incentives, Standardized Hospital Procedures, and Public Education to Promote Family Discussion.The Milbank Quarterly, Vol. 73, No. 3 (1995), pp. 463-479.

Organ donation rates are not keeping up with the need. People who need these life saving operations are dying everyday not because there is a lack of potential donors but because there are not enough people who say yes to organ donation. The Authors of this article look at various ways of increasing donation rates. The discuss financial compensation but ultimately come to the conclusion that it may not help and could possibly hurt organ donation. They do agree that more needs to be done in the way of research into how financial compensation might work and say that it will take time to determine it's effects. Time is what so many people do not have and so the authors look more heavily into what can be done now to increase organ donation rates. Education seems to be the key. First, health care professionals need to be better equipped to deal with identifying potential donors and then better protocols need to be implemented into how families are approached. Second, the general public needs to be made aware that discussing your desire to be an organ donor with family is vital in helping them make the decision if they are ever faced with it.
This article helped me decide that I needed a new avenue for my paper. Instead of focusing solely on financial compensation for organ donation I have decided to make the focus of my paper "How can we increase organ donation rates?" Financial compensation can be one of the ideas, but there are so many different ways that this subject can be approached. I understand the ideas proposed by the authors and agree that while many people may sign an organ donation card it is still the discussion with your family that is going to help in the end since your family has the final say into whether your organs are donated or not.