If We Pay Football Players, Why Not Kidney Donors

Ethicists who oppose compensating kidney donors claim they do so because kidney donation is risky for the donor’s health, donors may not appreciate the risks and may be cognitively biased in other ways, and donors may come from disadvantaged groups and thus could be exploited. However, few ethical qualms are raised about professional football players, who face much greater health risks than kidney donors, have much less counseling and screening concerning that risk, and who often come from racial and economic groups deemed disadvantaged. It thus seems that either ethicists—and the law—should ban both professional football and compensated organ donation, allow both, or allow compensated organ donation but prohibit professional football. The fact that we choose none of those options raises questions about the wisdom of the compensation ba

If We Pay Football Players, Why Not Kidney Donors

Ethicists who oppose compensating kidney donors claim they do so because kidney donation is risky for the donor’s health, donors may not appreciate the risks and may be cognitively biased in other ways, and donors may come from disadvantaged groups and thus could be exploited. However, few ethical qualms are raised about professional football players, who face much greater health risks than kidney donors, have much less counseling and screening concerning that risk, and who often come from racial and economic groups deemed disadvantaged. It thus seems that either ethicists—and the law—should ban both professional football and compensated organ donation, allow both, or allow compensated organ donation but prohibit professional football. The fact that we choose none of those options raises questions about the wisdom of the compensation ba

“Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy”: An Economic Analysis of the Attack on Gun Control

A relatively new way for utilizing the thermal performance of heat pipes is to use nanofluids as working fluids in the heat pipes. Heat pipes are effective heat transfer devices in which the nanofluid operates in the two phases, evaporation and condensation. The heat pipe transfers the heat supplied in e.g. a laptop, from the evaporator to condenser part. Nanofluids are mixtures consisting of nanoparticles (e.g. nano-sized silver particles) and a base fluid (e.g. water). The aim of this bachelor’s thesis has been to examine the effect of nanofluids on heat pipes on the subject of temperature parameters and thermal resistance in the heat pies, through findings in literature and an applied model. The study, based on literature and an applied model, found that higher particle conductivity and higher concentration of nanoparticles consequently decrease the thermal resistance in the heat pipes, resulting in an enhanced thermal performance of the heat pipes with nanofluids as working fluids. It is however concluded that difficulties in finding the optimal synthesis of nanofluids, the concentration level of nanoparticles and the filling ratio of nanofluids in heat pipes, set bounds to the commercial use of nanofluids in heat pipes. It is suggested that, in order to enhance the heat transfer performance of nanofluids in heat pipes, to conduct further research concerning e.g. synthesis of nanofluids and concentration level of nanoparticles in nanofluids

A Primer on Kidney Transplantation: Anatomy of the Shortage

Kidneys are unique among the solid organs due to the combination of the low risk of living donation, the feasibility of sustaining life on dialysis for several years following kidney failure, and Medicare coverage of dialysis and transplantation for kidney patients. Despite these advantages, thousands of Americans die each year while waiting for a kidney transplant, and the waiting list grows each year. In this kidney transplantation primer, we provide a quantitative description of the kidney shortage and discuss future trends and possible solutions. We demonstrate that the current system provides only about half as many kidneys as are needed for transplantation and the gap cannot be eliminated through an increase in deceased donation alone, because most kidneys from suitable deceased donors are already procured. The prospects for increasing living donations under the current system are also dim. Donations from living kidney donors have declined from their 2003 peak and nearly all living kidney donations are directed by the donor, usually to family members, rendering the current account of living kidney donation as “altruistic” somewhat misleading. For all of these reasons, we believe the time is ripe to reconsider financial incentives for kidney donation. Needless to say, a system that provided financial rewards for living donors could produce unsavory consequences, and would have to be carefully designed and managed. But without such a system, the most likely version of the future is a continuation of unnecessarily high rates of death and disability from kidney failure

If We Allow Football Players and Boxers to be Paid for Entertaining the Public, Why Don’t We Allow Kidney Donors to be Paid for Saving Lives?

We contrast the compensation ban on organ donation with the legal treatment of football, boxing, and other violent sports where both acute and chronic injuries to participants are common. Our claim is that there is a stronger case for compensating kidney donors than for compensating participants in violent sports. If this proposition is accepted, one implication is that there are only three logically consistent positions: allow compensation for both kidney donation and for violent sports; allow compensation for kidney donation but not for violent sports; or allow compensation for neither. Our current law and practice is perverse in endorsing a fourth regime, allowing compensation for violent sports but not kidney donation. We base our argument chiefly on the medical risk to participants, the consent process, social justice concerns, and social welfare considerations. The medical risks to a professional career in football, boxing, and other violent sports are much greater both in the near and long term than the risks of donating a kidney. On the other hand, the consent and screening process in professional sports is not as developed as in kidney donation. The social justice concerns stem from the fact that most players are black and some come from impoverished backgrounds. Finally, the net social benefit from compensating kidney donors – namely, saving thousands of lives each year and reducing the suffering of 100,000 more receiving dialysis – far exceeds the net social benefit of entertaining the public through professional sports. In sum, the arguments against compensating kidney donors apply with equal or greater force to compensating athletes in these sport

Habit and Heterogeneity in the Youthful Demand for Alcohol

Observed patterns of youthful drinking indicate substantial persistence. This paper analyzes how much of that persistence reflects the actual development of a habit, and how much is due to unobserved aspects of the individual and the environment. The role of restrictions on alcohol availability, both in the current period and in adolescence, is also explored. We find that much of the observed persistence represents habit formation, and not unobserved characteristics. Consequently, restrictions on availability, particularly at an early age, alter subsequent patterns of alcohol consumption and abuse.