“Medical schools in the United States are awash in cadavers. Yet, at the same time, there is a chronic shortage of organs for transplant patients, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people each year. Understanding why so many people donate bodies to medical schools holds lessons for how we should reform the laws governing organ donations. Currently, U.S. medicine tries to procure transplant organs by urging people to register as organ donors. A recent report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the severe shortage of transplant organs proposes more of the same medicine but at a higher dose: In essence, it counsels that we should ask more fervently. But continuing this policy, no matter how fervently we solicit would-be donors, will only fail to prevent more unnecessary deaths and more reports on the chronic organ shortage.” (11/27/06)