title: Directed altruistic living donation: what is wrong with the beauty contest?
abstract: This paper explores the specific criticism of directed altruistic living organ donation that it creates a 'beauty contest' between potential recipients of organs. The notion of the beauty contest in transplantation was recently used by Neidich et al who stated that '[a]ltruism should be the guiding motivation for all donations, and when it [is], there is no place for a beauty contest'. I examine this beauty contest objection from two perspectives. First, I argue that, when considered against the behaviour of donors, this objection cannot be consistently raised without also objecting to other common aspects of organ donation. I then explore the beauty contest objection from the perspective of recipients, and argue that if the beauty contest is objectionable, it is because of a tension between recipient behaviour and the altruism that supposedly underpins the donation system. I conclude by briefly questioning the importance of this tension in light of the organ shortage.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moorlock
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D033001:Directed Tissue Donation / Q000941:ethics*; D005190:Family; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D019520:Living Donors / Q000523:psychology; D009042:Motivation; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000941:ethics; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States
keywords: Allocation of Organs/Tissues; Donation/Procurement of Organs/Tissues; Transplantation