Opioids and Organs: How Overdoses Affect the Supply and Demand for Organ Transplants

Abstract

As the incidence of fatal drug overdose quadrupled in the U.S. over the past two decades, patients awaiting organ transplants may be unintended beneficiaries. We use Vital Statistics mortality data, merged with the universe of transplant candidates in the U.S. from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, to study the extent to which the growth in opioid-related deaths affects the supply of deceased organ donors and transplants. Using two separate identification strategies, we find that opioid-related deaths led to more than 26,000 organ transplants in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018. We find that transplant centers are increasingly recovering organs from overdose victims for transplant, with the association between opioid-related deaths and organ donors more than doubling between 2000 and 2018. We also present evidence that transplant candidates are more willing to use organs from those who died of opioid-related causes when organ shortages are relatively severe.

Note:
Funding Information: None to declare.

Conflict of Interests: None to declare.

Keywords: organ donation, transplantation, opioid epidemic, overdose deaths

JEL Classification: I11, I18