"When Altruism Isn't Enough: The Worsening Organ Shortage, What It Means for Seniors, and
What To Do About It"
Dr. Sally L. Satel
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.
Ann F. Baum Memorial Lecture on Elder Law
The 2007 Ann F. Baum Memorial Lecture on Elder Law, "When Altruism Isn't Enough:
The Worsening Organ Shortage, What It Means for Seniors, and What To Do About It,"
will focus on Dr. Sally Satel's thesis that organ donors, whether they are living or
deceased, should be compensated to increase the supply of transplantable organs available.
She will examine the specific issue of renal failure as a major problem affecting older
people and how donated kidneys can ensure better outcomes for the affected elderly
compared to dialysis. She will also consider implications for Medicare, which funds
the very costly end stage renal disease program. Finally, she will evaluate current
efforts to restructure the allocation system of donated kidneys that discriminates
against older potential recipients on the basis of age.
Dr. Sally Satel is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in the
W.H. Brady Program in Culture and Freedom. She is also the staff psychiatrist at the
Oasis Clinic in Washington, D.C. She serves on the advisory committee of the Center
for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
In 2003, she served on the Fowler Commission that investigated sexual misconduct at
the U.S. Air Force Academy.
She is the co-author of The Health Disparities Myth: Diagnosing the Treatment Gap (2006),
One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance (2005)
(with Christina Hoff Sommers), and Health and the Income Inequality Hypothesis:
A Doctrine in Search of Data (2004), and the author of PC, M.D.: How Political
Correctness is Corrupting Medicine (2000). She has published in The New York Times,
The New Republic, and The Wall Street Journal as well as American Journal of Psychiatry,
Journal of the American Medical Association, and National Review, among others.
Dr. Satel has appeared on ABC News, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, National Public Radio,
and the Public Broadcasting System.
Dr. Satel earned her B.S. from Cornell University, an M.S. from the University of Chicago
and an M.D. from Brown University. After completing her residency in psychiatry at
Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Satel was an assistant professor of psychiatry
at Yale from 1988-1993. From 1993-94 she was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow
with the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. Dr. Satel has testified before the
House Ways and Means Committee, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee,
and the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
