Interviews in Chicago

This chapter reports findings from interviews, conducted in Chicago, about honorary, compensationalist, and familist incentives for deceased organ donation. Informants overall supported the current honorary incentives and ranked this kind of incentive their first choice, although they also pointed out the incentives could be improved if the relevant systems addressed issues that may hinder eligible donors from signing up or consenting to donation. Even though many interviewees saw compensationalist incentives as involving the risk of exploiting the underprivileged in society, some respondents pointed out that closely monitored compensation in the form of tax deductions or funeral support might enlarge the willing donor pool. On familist incentives, many interviewees recognized that those incentives might work especially well in contexts where familial ties are the most important social relationships for people, but the model is not the most suitable one in contemporary American society because social networks are not necessarily family based.