The Health Care Debate and Organ Transplantaion

Scarcity and Cost

Having had a chronically ill wife for the last few years I have been following the current debate on health care very closely Unfortunately I have heard very little about organ transplantation discussed during this Congressional debate. I find this very worrisome because two of the issues that should be discussed are the scarcity of transplantable organs and their ultimate cost. Because the health issues that led to the recent death of my late wife are related to transplants . Both of the issues listed in the last sentence of this article are important to an intelligent discussion of the bioethics behind organ transplantation which I now want to bring to the readers of Associated Content. .

First off I want to state that it is generally agreed that donor organs are scarce, and the presumption behind this assumption is that most donor organs are harvested from cadavers. Very few people whose organs would be harvested (if there is such a word) for transplant purposes die every year. Even fewer of these cadavers donors give their organs to needy transplant candidates. Therefore, transplant surgeons say there's a shortage of organs suitable for donation, especially nowadays, what with the success rate of all the new immunosuppressants. It's easier to suppress the immune systems of recipients; therefore, more of us have long-term success at the transplant game, and more candidates are getting referred to transplant centers. Hence, between the increased number of candidates and the relatively stable number of cadaver organ donors, it looks for all the world as if we have a shortage.