In a new kidney transplant allocation proposal, organs would be doled out based on how long the recipient would likely live rather than how long they’ve been waiting for a transplant. That’s the plan proposed by the US’s organ transplant network, unveiled today in Dallas.
Under the proposed system, older patients like me would be less likely to get transplants:
“‘The thought is, if one person can live 15 years after a kidney transplant and another person can live five years, the organ should go to the person who lives the longest,’ explained Dolph Chianchiano, vice president of health policy for the National Kidney Foundation.”
Interestingly—but probably not surprisingly—there’s no mention of the proposal on the United Network for Organ Sharing, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, or the National Kidney Foundation Web sites.
While I’m not necessarily opposed to the proposal, it does have a sort of smell of the old kidney death squads. Back in the 1970s, before dialysis was universally available in the US, hospital death squads determined who deserved dialysis and which patients were sent home with a handful of morphine to die a painful death.
At any rate, the organization responsible for coordinating organ transplants in this country probably isn’t the best candidate to be making proposals like this.
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