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November 6, 2020, 12:00 PM

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Event Description

Organ donation saves and improves lives every day, but there are not nearly enough organ donors to meet the demand for transplantation. In 2019, 19,267 U.S. donors made possible a record-setting 39,718 transplants, but more than 109,000 Americans remain on the organ transplant waiting list. How can this gap be bridged? What might be done to increase participation in the organ donor registry? What lessons might be learned by experience elsewhere?

Please join the Petrie-Flom Center on November 6th for an exploration of these important questions. First, Robert Walmsley University Professor and former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration, Cass Sunstein, will discuss how his “nudge theory” might be employed to increase organ donation. In a follow-up discussion moderated by James Lytle, Fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, Phil Walton, Project Lead for Deemed Consent Legislation for the National Health Service’s Blood and Transplant Division, will share how Wales and England have sought to increase donation through an “opt-out” organ donor registry and Alexandra Glazier, President and CEO of New England Donor Services, the nonprofit organization responsible for organ donation for in the region, and on the Board of Directors for the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network that oversees transplantation nationwide, will present on the American complexities of the organ donation system, including opportunities to increase organ donation rates.

Join the conversation and submit questions on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #NudgingDonation.

Panelists

  • Introduction: Carmel Shachar, Executive Director, The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School
  • Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University; Founder and Director, Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, Harvard Law School
  • Alexandra Glazier, President and CEO, New England Donor Services
  • Phil Walton, Project Lead for Deemed Consent Legislation, National Health Service’s Blood and Transplant Division (see bio below)
  • Moderator: James Lytle, Fellow, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative

Panelist Bios

Phil Walton has worked in NHS Blood and Transplant for more than a decade, undertaking a number of roles. As a Specialist Nurse for Organ Donation, he approached bereaved families for organ donation and facilitated the entire process. Most recently he has worked on the programme to deliver opt-out legislation in the U.K.

His operational leadership oversaw the implementation of the Human Transplantation (Wales) Act in 2015 where Wales became the first country in the United Kingdom to implement deemed consent. This delivery came with intense scrutiny from both Government and the donation and transplant community to understand whether the new legislation would have an impact. There have been some challenges and many successes with the Welsh implementation, most notably the statistically significant improvement in DBD consent rate after 3 and a half years.

Over the last two years, Phil has been the project lead for deemed consent legislation during it’s introduction in Jersey (July 2019) and England (May 2020), supporting the implementation of deemed authorisation in Scotland (March 2021), as well as preparing for and leading on the introduction in Guernsey, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland over the next 18 months. In addition, Phil has advised colleagues on the implementation of opt out systems in both The Netherlands and Nova Scotia, Canada.


Sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.


Videos

VIDEO: Nudging Organ Donation: Tools to Encourage Organ Availability

VIDEO: Professor Cass Sunstein

VIDEO: Phil Walton

VIDEO: Alexandra Glazier

VIDEO: Q&A

Tags

access   health care reform   health law policy   public health   race   racial justice