Congressional Kidney Failure

A kidney donor takes to the pages of The New York Times to argue that what he's doing shouldn't be a big deal: 

More than 34,000 people joined the waiting list in 2010; fewer than 17,000 received one. Thousands of people die waiting each year.

This is a tragedy, but it doesn't have to be this way. The people waiting for kidneys aren't dying because of kidney failure; they're dying because of our failure — without Congress's misguided effort to ban organ sales, they would have been able to get the kidneys they desperately needed.

Shoring up his case, last week's Ninth Circuit court decision (mostly) legalizing the sale of bone marrow. Technically, that decision hinges on the replenishability of bone marrow (thus making it similar to blood and semen, which were already legal to sell under the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984). But the court also notes that marrow donation was once far more difficult, painful, and risky than it is today. The same is true of kidney donation. 

Mmm…kidneys for sale.

Comments

[fish]

Technically, that decision hinges on the replenishability of bone marrow (thus making it similar to blood and semen...

I didn't say mixed together!

[teh rael o3]

"... without Congress's misguided effort to ban organ sales,:
_

the origin of which is the chinese scheduling executions to sell organs on the international market.

[cthorm]

Salvage value. Would you rather just burn or bury the felons? Burial is expensive in China.

[Live Free or Diet]

Salvage value? I don't like the idea of the state profiting from killing. Sounds like a setup for Larry Niven's Known Space in the early phase, when even fairly minor infractions carried the death penalty to supply the organ banks.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Triple Asshole,

the origin of which is the chinese scheduling executions to sell organs on the international market.

The origin? You're not only ignorant, you're the most pathetic result of the Amerikan Pulbic Skool Seistem.

[o3]

thx i tries moist harder

[Feces]

Technically, that decision hinges on the replenishability of bone marrow (thus making it similar to blood and semen, which were already legal to sell under the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984).

What am I, chopped liver?

[Bones]

Heh. If you were, you could regenerate!

[Da State]

National Organ Transplant Act of 1984

What is it about "We own YOU!" that you just don't understand?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Always with the kidneys.

[FreedomNow]

Check out this awesome video about legalizing kidney sales from philosopher James Taylor here: http://www.learnliberty.org/vi.....moral-case

[Mark E]

Don't worry, I'm sure that buried down somewhere in the 2000+ pages of obama-care, or written in the tens of thousands pages of guidelines from HHS will be a requirement that everyone becomes part of the 'voluntary' organ donor program. Probably through 'presumed consent' since you didn't specifically ask for the gov't opt out card, then filled it out & have it notarized prior to entering the hospital.

[Jordan]

I would not be surprised at all. I'm pretty sure Britain already has presumed consent.

[Jeffersonian]

I'm having a uterus sewn into my abdomen next week just so I can have an organ that the government doesn't claim dominion over.

[Dave Undis]

As the death toll from the organ shortage mounts, public opinion will eventually support financial incentives for organ donation in the United States. Changes in public policy will then follow.

In the mean time, there is an already-legal way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- allocate donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die. UNOS, which manages the national organ allocation system, has the power to make this simple policy change. No legislative action is required.

Americans who want to donate their organs to other registered organ donors don't have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, 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 http://www.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.

Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. Non-donors should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.

David J. Undis
Executive Director
LifeSharers

[Byron]

Wouldn't this primarily incentivize only those non-donors who have been diagnosed with organ failure requiring transplant to become donors?

[livingdonor101]

I'm really hoping Ms. Mangu-Ward was exercising a bit of snark and is not this ignorant of how the transplant industry dysfunctions.

4.4 living kidney donors die each year in the US within 12 months of surgery (per OPTN data)

20% experience physical complications: nerve damage, hernia, adrenal dysfunction, pancreatitis, chylous ascites, testicular swelling and sensitivity, chronic pain, hypertension, etc.

20-30% experience depression, anxiety, anger, PTSD, financial and other psychosocial difficulties. Not a single transplant ctr offers aftercare or support services.

There are no national standards of evaluation, selection, treatment or aftercare for living donors. Every transplant center makes up its own rules. A 2011 study concluded that these variable practices are also not based on any clinical evidence.

More than a decade after the Sec of Health mandated transplant ctrs to report one-year (2 yrs in 2006) of LD follow-up, 40% of LDs are reported 'lost' by one year. In 2009, OPTN's own data task force called the database 'woefully inadequate' and 'useless' for analysis or research.

There is NO long-term data on LDs health and well-being. We have no idea what happens to LKDs 20 or more years down the road. We do know that reduced renal function means a higher lifetime risk of hypertension, cardiac disease and death, and kidney disease and death. 300+ living kidney donors have needed their own kidney transplant since 1994. We know NOTHING on any living donor prior to 94 (40 yrs of LDs) because no one thought it was important to collect something as a rudimentary as a security number.

Even that isn't enough evidence, know that every study from every country with legal or illegal organ sales concludes the situation to be incredibly detrimental to the living donor/vendor. They experience more health problems, greater financial difficulties, increased psychosocial issues, and a reduced quality of life.

The government and transplant industry has had nearly 60 years to fulfill their responsibilities to living donors and the public. They have overwhelmingly failed.

[Nike Dunk Shoes]

thanks