viernes, 6 de noviembre de 2009
A Different Kind of Organ Market?
Who gets bumped to the front of UCLA medical center's liver-transplant line? The godfather of the Japanese mafia, according to this 60 Minutes video. Called the "John Gotti of Japan" by U.S. law enforcement, he moved to the top of UCLA's waiting list and got a liver in about six weeks rather than the average three years, reports 60 Minutes's Lara Logan, by allegedly paying $1 million for the transplant and making a sizable donation to the transplant center. He wouldn't have been so lucky in the UK.
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Classic example of Robin Hooding. Now the transplant center has an extra million to keep people from dying. I don't see this as necessarily unfair, since if they squeeze a few more rich people like that, won't my transplant effectively be subsidized? What price our convictions?
ResponderEliminarThe problem is not the cost of the transplant, but the availability of the organs.
ResponderEliminarYour subsidized transplant does you no good if the liver you were supposed to get went to the rich guy that paid to jump in line ahead of you.
I wouldn't be surprised if the guy had some of his people go out and take someone else's liver for him. Maybe 20 people's livers, then check if one of them is a match. If you're the John Gotti of Japan, would you meekly sit around and wait for your turn ?
ResponderEliminarThere is no problem is the rich goes to the front of the queue; even if they don't help others on the transplant queue.
ResponderEliminarHowever this case is different. The ethics and morality of the medical center is in question.
They have helped individuals (it's not just one person, it's several Yakuzas) who are know to have tortured and murdered other people. Now these mobsters can continue to do so.
Evil wins when good men stand aside and do nothing.
Economically this sends out a bad message globally. It only reinforce the already horrible image than most Asian countries have of America.
(and before anyone comment; generally asians do differentiate between Americans and American government and corporations)
Corban. That's the same argument so many people have put forward for a free market in transplants.
ResponderEliminarIf there were enough organs for everyone who needs one, this wouldn't have happened.
ResponderEliminarInstead, over half of the 103,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. Over 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren't willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.
Unless of course you are the person who got bumped for the transplant, in that case I don't think this would be so abstract. Someone else was meant to get the liver that was purchased by the gangster.
ResponderEliminarThe real tragedy, of course, is that there simply isn't a market for transplants in the first place.
ResponderEliminarI heard this guy gave up a lot of names of front corporations to the FBI that his mafia like group the yakuza were running in the US in exchange for the transplant. Can't remember which program I saw it on.
ResponderEliminarCoincidence or not, our local transplant center (distant from Texas) got a spate of organs after the Ft. Hood shootings. If indeed several of those who died so horribly were donors, it increased the available pool nationwide and led to saving the lives of many who were awaiting transplant.
ResponderEliminarOne liver going to somebody else is a death sentence for the person down the line who didn't get the liver in time.
Tragedies can turn into the gift of life for those awaiting organs. The best donor is a healthy one who dies suddenly of trauma that doesn't injure the organs themselves. That is usually a very shocking and sad incident, such as a vehicle accident or violence.
A lot of the organ donation issues could be resolved by changing the "default" choice to donation rather than non-donation. It has been shown that, if opting out is the active choice rather than the passive one, a significantly larger number of people will donate. This is the same behavioral economics methodology used by many companies for things like 401(k) participation.
ResponderEliminarYou saw it on 60 minutes, and he gave up that information for permission to enter the country. That has nothing to do with paying for the transplant or the ethics of the hospital.
ResponderEliminarI haven't seen the main story, but I believe if a friend or family member agrees to donate your organ, you bypass the waiting list. One only needs a partial liver for an effective transplant, so Nik's guess may be close to the truth! Either way, the donated tissue must match the recipient's tissue type and that is where someone with a rare tissue type might get passed ahead of those with more common types just because a matching organ became available.
ResponderEliminarDan @ #8 wrote:
ResponderEliminar"The real tragedy, of course, is that there simply isn
SUGGESTION:
ResponderEliminarLegally have a person agree to donate organs (if possible) at time of death. They must mandated to carry documentation of their pledge at all times.
They are then paid a given amount of money at the time of the donation -- not at the time when the Grim Reaper makes his inevitiable visit.
I'll be that this would increase the number of viable donors exonentially.
Of course only a fraction of the cadavers could be used for given purposes. But, I believe that this system would help many.