Anti-bullying laws in the United States caused a measurable decline in the supply of organs available for transplant.
Successful suicide prevention programs for female teenagers led to fewer donors entering the medical system. This creates a tragic trade-off where a major public health victory results in a shortage of life-saving organs. Most people assume that better laws for teen safety have only positive consequences for society. The data shows that the interconnectedness of healthcare systems means saving one life can inadvertently affect another. This discovery forces a rethink of how we manage the supply chain for critical medical resources.
Anti-Bullying Laws and Suicide-Based Teen Organ Donation
SSRN · 6718349
Since 1999, all 50 U.S. states and D.C. have adopted anti-bullying laws (ABLs), and a growing body of evidence shows that these laws reduce suicidal behaviors among 14–18 year-old females. We document an unintended consequence of this public-health gain: a reduction in suicide-based teen organ donation. Using the universe of U.S. deceased organ donations from the UNOS STAR files (1993–2024) and a difference-in-differences design exploiting staggered ABL adoption, we find that ABLs reduce per cap