HERNDON, Va.?It’s ethical to pay families who donate a loved one’s organs, as long as the money isn’t enough to constitute a bribe, a newly created organ transplant advisory committee was told Monday.

The committee, meeting for the first time, is charged with advising the secretary of health and human services on ways to increase organ donation and how best to distribute organs that are donated.

On Monday, the focus was increasing donation, and members considered a variety of ideas. Among them: new ways to financially and otherwise help the growing number of living donors, and efforts to procure organs from older people and others traditionally passed over.

More than 80,000 people are on organ transplant waiting lists, and more than 5,700 died waiting last year. The families of many potential donors are never approached about donation, and less than half of those who are asked say yes.