From The Drive:

An often touted benefit of self-driving vehicles is that they are safer than human drivers, and cause fewer accidents. Fewer road accidents will mean fewer deaths. Fewer dead people means that there could be an even bigger shortage of donor organs in the near future. It may be morbid, opportunist, and callous, but a conservative think thank has identified this unintended consequence, and advocates a human market marketplace solution.

Washington-based R Street published an article in Slate highlighting that 1 in 5 transplanted organs are a result of vehicle fatalities. Should the country achieve the government’s targeted zero highway fatalities by 2030, there could a lot fewer bodies from which to harvest organs. The half-glass empty view of eliminating 38,000 annual deaths is to see an increased morbidity in other areas due to donor organ shortage.

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