Being able to pay for the part TO THE ESTATE could provide an incentive for more donations (sales), which would help more people.
Just paying the DR’s to jump the line should not be allowed.
I support discriminating against non-US citizens in organ transplants (in US territory).
Hmmm. I’m next of kin to my very irritating brother. I used to refer to him as ‘worthless’ but, let’s see…2 kidneys, 1 liver, a heart, 2 lungs, anybody want a pancreas? And then there’s bone marrow.
<rubs hands gleefully> Even after the hit man’s fee, there my retirement all funded!
Boy does that get sticky.
So the Rich or better insured are advantaged in the organ lottery.
Families will be fighting over who gets the money for Grandmother’s Organs.
Grey market Organ harvesting would be right around the corner.
As an American living overseas who’s received extensive medical care here (including treatment that was in limited supply and required waiting for an opening), I’m extremely thankful other nations don’t share lavenderlemon’s sickening position.
Speaking as an actual kidney/liver transplant patient myself, I wholly agree.
In this case, livers probably aren’t tissue-typed. There generally isn’t time, given how long a liver lasts outside the body.
Another factor in the distribution of organs is that certain local areas have different rules for triage. Some hospitals will do the transplant to anybody sick enough to need it, regardless of the reason — including new livers to chronic alcoholics and drug abusers — regardless if the patient is likely to lapse back into the habits which killed the original organ. Other local areas only transplant organs to patients who have a high probability of compliance.
That is why the waiting list for a liver can be 2 years in New York State and 9 months in Jersey: one hospital is careful to give the organ to a person who will recognize it as the precious resource it is, and the other hospital will do it for whoever can pay. But even they don’t move people up the list for cash. Disgusting.
It’s funny how when we talk about ways in which America’s system of rationing care screws over the poor, we get all rightous about the efficiency of the free market, the lack of a right to health care, the need for the poor to plan for their health emergencies etc.
But when we talk about a way in which America’s system of rationing health care screws over the middle class, suddenly we are intersted in distributing medical resources fairly according to need, our health obligations to our citizens, and not having money be the deciding factor in who gets life-saving care.
I think what is so appalling about this is that the organ transplant allocation system is one of the few things in this country that is set up to be very egalitarian, based only on need. I know the reason I’m pissed is not just because it screws over the poor and/or the middle class, but because the organ transplant network was supposed to be a sort of “sacred territory” that has been defiled.
in china the situation is you pay you get. morality aside, it’s based on who can pay rather than need. while i have no personal information it seems well documented that foriegners can come to china and buy a transplant. such transplants help subsidize the medical system.
my 2 cents on the OP. dunno, i personally would not be outraged if some wants to pay 30 times the cost to jump the queue.
however i am outraged that there was a sellout for an insultingly trival amount of money