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Medical Ethics And The “R” Word

March 7th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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[Recently] a short article in the New York Times, New Kidney Transplant Policy Would Favor Younger Patients, [drew] my attention to a very basic problem in medical ethics: Rationing.

According to the Washington Post coverage, the proposal comes from the United Network for Organ Sharing, a Richmond-based private non-profit group the federal government contracts for allocation of donated organs. From the Times piece:

Under the proposal, patients and kidneys would each be graded, and the healthiest and youngest 20 percent of patients and kidneys would be segregated into a separate pool so that the best kidneys would be given to patients with the longest life expectancies.

This all follows [the recent] front-page business story on the monetary value of life.

I have to admit, I’m glad to see these stories in the media. Any reasoned discussion of policy and reform requires frank talk on healthcare resources which, even in the best of economic times, are limited.

*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*

How Much Are Your Organs Worth?

June 27th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Medical Art, News, Quackery Exposed, Research
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I don’t plan to sell my organs on eBay, but as organ transplantation, lack of donors, and illegal organ trafficking gets more and more serious, this infographic comes just in time. It provides some interesting answers to questions like, “How much does a liver cost in South Korea?” and “How many patients are waiting for transplants?” Click on the image for the original larger version:

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*