Driverless cars may inadvertently cause an organ shortage
As driverless cars get closer to becoming a reality, they’re also about to have an unintended consequence: an organ shortage.
A Slate piece Friday notes that as computers start taking the wheel of our vehicles, cars will become safer, and in turn, fewer people will die in car crashes. While on the surface that seems like a good thing, organs from a lot of those victims are what doctors use to save Americans dying from kidney and liver disease, and much more.
Currently, 6,500 Americans die each year waiting on an organ transplant, and that number is about to get much higher. Right now, 20 percent of the organs used in those transplants come from victims of vehicular accidents. When those accidents go down, so will the amount of donated organs.
