No, carrots do not grow on trees

Monday, June 13, 2005

Local Transplant Centers Offering Imperfect Organs


It seems that certain transplant centers are offering less than perfect organs as an alternative to waiting up to 6 years for a new organ. I believe they are dealing solely with kidneys right now. Let me give you details. 33 volunteers have chosen to get organs from people over 50y/o or that had certain risk factors to thier kidneys.
The key here is, these people would have to go on dialysis if they didn't have the operation. I think this is in general a good idea. Similarly, I always wondered why AIDs patients aren't all taking the safe experimental treatments if it means that they will live. There are certainly plenty to go around. Of course it's a risk to the patients, but less of a risk than certain death.
On the other hand, I'm not sure this is a great step forward for society. The credo of all medical doctors is, "First, do no harm". This is a bit of a stretch in that area. The reason they didn't use those organs in the first place is because they are a bit of a risk. Of course this is also why people aren't taking tons of experimental medicine as well. I guess thats a good thing what with mutating viruses and such.
I hope this helps those 33 volunteers and eventually helps more. I just hope they take extra care when dealing with those less than perfect organs.
TheBostonChannel.com - News Archive - Local Transplant Centers Offering Imperfect Organs Posted by Hello

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