On Friday, May 15 at 12:00 PM ET Mario Macis will host a panel discussion on the End Kidney Deaths Act. The Organ Donation Dilemma: Ethics, Economics, and Life-Saving Solutions Webinar Expert Panelists: Alexander Capron, USC Law/Bioethics; Gabriel Danovitch, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine; Kimberly Krawiec, UVA Law; Elaine Perlman, President, Coalition to Modify NOTA and Executive Director Register Here (Note: hot links may not have copied. You may have to search on Google, etc.)

More Detailed Information Mario Macis With organ shortages claiming thousands of lives annually, this session explores whether carefully designed market mechanisms can increase donation rates while maintaining ethical standards and preventing exploitation.

Panelists:

Alexander Capron University Professor Emeritus, Scott H. Bice Chair Emeritus in Healthcare Law, Policy and Ethics, Professor Emeritus of Law and Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, and Founding Co-Director, Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics Alexander Capron, a globally recognized expert in health policy and medical ethics, taught Public Health Law, Torts, and Law and Bioethics at the Law School from 1985 to 2023. He also taught at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and co-founded the Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics, a campus-wide interdisciplinary research and education center. From 2002 to 2006 he served as Director of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights, and Health Law at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Capron’s publications include Ethical Issues in Governing Biobanks: Global Perspectives (with others, Ashgate, 2008), Law, Science and Medicine 2nd ed. (with others, Foundation Press, 1996), Treatise on Health Care Law (with others, Matthew Bender, 1991), and Genetics, Ethics and Human Values (edited with Z. Bankowski, Geneva: CIOMS, 1991). Capron received a BA from Swarthmore College and an LLB from Yale University, where he was an officer of the Yale Law Journal. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and served as President of the International Association of Bioethics. Capron is a trustee of The Century Foundation, an officer of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, and an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sciences) and of the American Law Institute.

Gabriel M. Danovitch MD Internal Medicine and General Medicine, Nephrology Dr. Gabriel Danovitch received his medical degree from St Bartholomew's Hospital of the University of London. He completed his residency training in London and in Beersheba, Israel, and his nephrology fellowship training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. He served on the faculty at Albert Einstein and then directed the nephrology unit at Soroka Hospital in Israel.

He currently holds the John J. Kuiper Chair in Nephrology and Renal Transplantation at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with the academic rank of Distinguished Professor of Medicine. He is the longtime Medical Director of its renowned Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program: one of the largest and most successful in the US.

Dr. Danovitch has devoted his recent career to various aspects of clinical kidney transplantation. He has published over 180 original articles and 50 book chapters. He has mentored a generation of transplant physicians and leads the UCLA AST/ASN kidney transplant, medicine fellowships, since its inception. Dr. Danovitch is an internationally recognized authority on transplant immunosuppression, clinical transplant care, transplant ethics, and public policy. He has served on the board of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and the United Network for Organ Donation (UNOS) and is the past Chair of its International Relations Committee.

Kimberly Krawiec Charles O. Gregory Professor of Law, University of Virginia Kim Krawiec’s current research analyzes “taboo trades” — exchanges that are contested by society and, in some cases, forbidden altogether. She has written on commercial surrogacy, egg and sperm markets, and sex work. At the moment, much of her work is on incentives for organ donation. Although financial incentives are part of the menu, she is most interested in nonfinancial incentives, such as kidney swaps, NEAD chains and priority systems that provide an incentive to donate. Krawiec hosts the podcast “Taboo Trades.” Another area of her research centers on the regulation of financial markets and business organizations. Krawiec has extensively examined the administrative process surrounding the Volcker Rule, a complex and highly contested provision of the Dodd-Frank Act. She has also researched corporate boards of directors. Through an ethnographic method, this work analyzes directors’ views on the workings of the corporate boardroom and board relations with management, with a special emphasis on directors’ views on race and gender diversity in the boardroom. Prior to joining academia, Krawiec was a member of the commodity and derivatives group at the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell. She has served as a commentator for the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) of the American Bar Association and on the faculty of the National Association of Securities Dealers Institute for Professional Development at the Wharton School of Business. She earned her juris doctorate from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University. Krawiec also has taught law at Duke Law School, the University of North Carolina, Harvard and Northwestern, where she received the 1999-2000 Robert Childres Award for Teaching Excellence

Elaine Perlman Elaine Perlman, President, Coalition to Modify NOTA and Executive Director, Waitlist Zero Since 2022, Elaine has focused on ending the kidney shortage. She led the advocacy campaign that resulted in the passage of the New York Living Donor Support Act, which passed unanimously in both chambers, and the federal Honor Our Living Donors Act, which passed unanimously in the House. She is now working to pass the End Kidney Deaths Act, which could save up to 10,000 American lives and $4 billion in federal spending each year. Elaine is the Executive Director of Waitlist Zero, an advocacy organization focused on ending the kidney shortage for the 90,000 Americans waiting for a transplant, and the President of the Coalition to Modify the National Organ Transplant Act. Elaine and her son Abie both donated kidneys to strangers. She has founded multiple organizations to expand living donation, including NYC One Kidney Club and Kidneys 4 Strangers, and has facilitated national and global donor communities, including for the National Kidney Donation Organization and the Global One Kidney Club. She has mentored prospective living organ donors for over six years. Elaine has also worked extensively in public health and education, hosting programs with the National Kidney Foundation on plant-based nutrition and mentoring multiple cohorts of individuals with chronic diseases. From 2016 to 2022, Elaine was a Professor and Program Director at Columbia University. Over a 30-year career in education, she taught students from early childhood through high school and led nutrition education programs in Harlem, the South Bronx, and Brooklyn. She has also painted eleven school murals.