OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
In opt-out organ donation systems, should the needs of those who choose to opt-out be deprioritised if they come to need a transplant organ themselves? Should such people be given additional negative points in the allocation algorithm? The principal argument in favour of this is one of fairness and avoiding ‘free-riding’. In addition, it has been argued that it would discourage opting-out and thus save lives by increasing the supply of transplant organs. On the other hand, a variety of different ethical and practical objections have been raised to the proposal and much of this paper is spent unpacking and evaluating these. Its ultimate conclusion is that there is a strong ethical case for deprioritisation. Whether this is the right public policy however very much depends on practical questions such as: To what extent would it improve supply? Would it be more or less effective than other policy changes? How effectively could it be communicated to the donating public? Would be seen as discriminatory? And would it improve or damage trust in the donation system?
