One of the most highly-lauded advantages of self-driving cars is that a world filled with interconnected autonomous vehicles will significantly reduce the number of traffic accidents and resulting deaths. But this comes with an unintentional consequence: fewer organs will be available to hospitals for patients who need transplants.

As a new report from Slate points out, hospitals around the country already struggle with organ supply shortages. About 6,500 Americans die every year waiting for a transplant, and the waiting list for organs has nearly doubled in the past 18 years, from about 65,000 to more than 123,000.

We don't have enough donated organs to take care of the patients who need transplants as it is, and one in five organs used in transplants come from vehicular accidents. When the number of automotive-related deaths plummets from self-driving cars, one of the most reliable sources of healthy human organs and tissues will plummet as well. Most analyses suggest that autonomous vehicles will eventually prevent over half of the 35,000 deaths that occur on American roads each year, and some reports are much more optimistic.

Obviously preventing automotive deaths is a good thing, but legislatures need to start thinking about ways to increase the nation's supply of organs. As Slate suggests, lawmakers could re-legalize organ sales, which were banned in 1984. A legal donation-for-compensation system could be setup for organs such as livers and kidneys, the most commonly needed organs by hospitals, similar to the payments that people receive for donating blood plasma, bone marrow, sperm, or eggs.

The Department of Transportation might also consider automatically enrolling drivers as organ donors, requiring people to opt out by checking a box at the DMV rather than opting in. Israel has had success increasing their organ supply by allowing people to move up on waiting lists if a family member donates an organ, not necessarily for that procedure.

It's morbid, but it's a reality of life—dead but otherwise healthy people are perfect organ donors. As the number of people seeking a transplant rises, self-driving cars are going to save the patients' otherwise-donors from an accident.

Source: Slate

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