Proposals would change rules for kidney transplants (age would now be a factor)

[rainbow4321]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/healthscience/stories/020907dnmedkidney.18d8b48.html

If someone needs a kidney transplant today, it doesn't matter if she's 25 or 60 years old. What counts is how long she's spent waiting for a suitable organ to become available.

That would change under a controversial new proposal by the nation's organ transplant network unveiled Thursday in Dallas. The plan would give kidneys to patients who would live longest after a transplant, not those who have languished longest on waiting lists.

The goal is to make sure organs go to patients who can get the most benefit from a kidney transplant, extending more peoples' lives. But experts worry that older patients would be far less likely to get transplants if the plan is adopted.

The change strikes some transplant experts and patients as unfair and potentially dangerous. "How do you tell a 55-year-old: Too bad, you're too old, you're not getting a kidney because your life expectancy isn't that of a 35-year-old?" asked Dr. Michael Abecassis, chief of organ transplantation at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. "How's the AARP going to react to that?"

[LiberalVoice]

1. Thats ridiculous. nt

[Justitia]

2. Well, there are other factors...(my son is about to go on the list).

You essentially get graded on a number of factors by the transplant team. The better your rating for a successful outcome, the higher your priority.

Of course some natural considerations for age are in the total equation, but it really is a multitude of things you get rated on. I would think a healthier 55-yr old would rank higher than a really, really unhealthy 35 yr old.

[rainbow4321]

5. I'm hoping all those factors will still be considered..

and that maybe the spokesperson in the article just did a crappy job of explaining the possibly-new-this-year criteria. I imagine any open forums that they have will be quite heated, otherwise.

[Moby Grape]

3. the important factor is --> $$$

c'mon people, grow up

[Jonathan50]

4. I'm fify six and I think this is not a bad idea

Putting my life where my mouth is.

If I have to die so that a sixteen year old may live, so be it.

[REP]

6. UNOS - Screwing TX Patents Whenever Possible

Between hospitals selling donor organs and UNOS screwed-up prioritizing, pretty soon no one will get kidneys.