Are transplant organs luxury goods?
My research in a dozen countries, with varying levels of regulation and of institutional capacity to monitor the harvesting and distribution of organs, has led me to conclude that in many global contexts organs waiting lists are frightfully flawed, lack transparency, and are filled with error. Even in the United States with its generally excellent organization under UNOS, initial reviews of the data on the official waiting list show redundancies ( as some enterprising patients double and triple list in different regions of the country), include many ‘inactive’ patients, and in the absence of the application of older medical ethical principles such as futility, the fastest growing population group on the US waiting list are people over 70 years old, many with complicating medical conditions that should render them ineligible for transplant. There is a glaring need for independent review and surveillance of the UNOS waiting list. Data from interviews with transplant tourist patients, the
Related Questions
- If it is known that CMV positive organs give CMV disease to CMV negative people, why is this type of transplant performed?
- Will transplant personnel honor the wishes of LifeSharers members to donate their organs first to other members?
- When a child needs an organ transplant, where do the healthy organs come from?
