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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> March
> March 27, 1998:
Hour One: Organ Transplants:
| Yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala announced new regulations for the national organ transplantation system. The regulations would significantly change the way scarce human organs are distributed nationwide, creating a national waiting list in place of the current separate regional waiting lists and moving the sickest patients to the head of the list.
About 54,000 Americans are currently waiting for organ transplants. However, organs are in extremely short supply. On average, ten people a day die waiting for a donated kidney, heart, lung, or liver, according to HHS statistics. | 
(adapted from artwork courtesy of FDA) | "Patients everywhere in the country should have an equal chance to receive an organ, based on their medical condition and the judgement of their physicians," Shalala said. "This regulation will help assure that organs are allocated on the basis of medical need, and that availability of organs will not be impeded by geographic lines."
Opponents of the plan, however, point out that allocating organs on the basis of medical need may not be the best policy. The sickest patients are also the most likely to die soon after a transplant, and the most likely to require additional transplants in the future. The organ transplant system, opponents of the proposed changes say, should instead be tailored to helping the largest number of people possible get transplants. The changes, opponents say, would effectively take needed organs away from smaller regional transplant centers, reallocating them to a handful of larger centers scattered about the country. In practice, much of the debate boils down to economics - larger centers tend to support the new plan, while the association of smaller centers that operate the current distribution system favor its continued use.
Our listeners share their opinions about organ transplant priorities and policies.
Guests:
Joe Palca
Correspondent
National Public Radio
Washington, DC
Dr. Alan Langas
Chief of Transplantation
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE
Dr. John Rabkin
Transplant Surgeon
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland, OR
Dr. Stuart Youngner
Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry and Biomedical Ethics
Case Western Reserve University
Director of Clinical Ethics Program
University Hospitals of Cleveland
Cleveland, OH
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Read the
proposed rule from HHS
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
U.S. government organ donor info
Coalition on Donation
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