ABSTRACT
The history of organ donation and transplant medicine in Israel is a microcosm of the processes delineated in the previous chapters. However, Israel differs in its manner of coping with the discords between the ethics and the political economy of organ transplantations. Debates on brain death and consent were soon politicized in the format of the religious-secular divide, between camps of “liberals” vs. “conservatives.” The ethical, scientific, and political were scrambled and produced sui generis the unprecedented mechanisms such as the priority model, the brain-respiratory act, competing donor cards, and more. I conclude this chapter by reflecting on the impact that the organ economy privatization process has had on social solidarity and organ donation. The failure to produce all-encompassing social solidarity to the benefit of all needy patients has resulted in a club membership model of in-group donation practices.
