Al Roth

Danny Kahneman made a very considered decision.

He was not rushed.

He wasn't being pressed by his family and friends.

On the contrary, but he had himself witnessed some difficult deaths in his life, and he didn't want to experience one.

What he said to people over the course of his life was that he'd had that conviction for a long time, that he didn't want a long lingering death.

I think these decisions are very personal.

I talked to Danny several times a year.

I wasn't

Very close.

If I had been closer to him and involved in the discussion, I probably would have argued against doing it.

He seemed okay to me, too.

And he had a partner.

He had a lot to live for.

But I wouldn't want to legislate my opinions about what he should do.

When I started working on kidney exchange, there were about 40,000 people, Americans, on the waiting list for a deceased donor kidney.

Today, there are almost 100,000, and there are 500,000 people on dialysis in the United States.

So that means lots of people who could potentially profit from a transplant aren't even on the waiting list because the waiting list is too long and you don't live long enough.

So we need more kidneys.

And in the meantime, we can continue to expand kidney exchange to make it work better.

One of the curious facts of the world is not everyone agrees with economists about what should happen in the world.