WA ‘opt-out’ organ donation scheme

Interesting to see today that the WA government has commissioned a proposal for an ‘opt out’ organ donation scheme, with a view to legislating such a scheme into law.  This is exactly the kind of behavioural choice policy that governments should be pursuing.  These policies recognize that people are not perfectly rational actors, that behaviour is predictably irrational and structures choices in a way that delivers outcomes without coercion.

Through its ‘Politics and the Brain‘ series, Per Capita has been exploring behavioural choice policy and has specifically highlighted potential for opt out organ donation, noting that countries with opt-out schemes have registered donor rates above 90%, while peer countries with opt-in schemes have donor rates below 10%.

Of course, the WA government could always go one step further and adopt the Israeli proposal that registered donors have priority access to organs over non-donors should they require one.