Organ Donation & Transplantation: The Challenge

The Life 'n' Death Issue Please... help me, seems so futile. By midnight tonight another 20 individuals will die because they could not get a desperately-needed organ transplant. Nobody you know, right? Yet it'll be somebody's brother, aunt, child, or girlfriend — and it might even be someone in your family, or even you.       Add it up and that's 8,030 people who die each year. And right behind that is another 8,030 humans moving toward death's door. Quality of life begins to be affected along with the ability to work. Soon it's followed by the financial burdens, and severe depression.       Over 111,290 fellow Americans are on the United Network for Organ Sharing Wait List, all clinging to life. All waiting for that vital phone call announcing a gift of life has been found for them!       The UNOS Wait List just keeps getting larger and longer with no end in sight. UNOS' altruism-only is a death sentence for too many! The Cost Issue $71,000 is more than most people earn in a year, yet this is the estimated cost for one dialysis patient waiting for a kidney transplant. Those 85,843 persons on the UNOS Wait List will absorb minimum public support of $710,000 each on average during their 10 year challenge. Gradually they will be unable to work a regular job, if any at all, further exacerbating the personal financial equation.       The cost issue is staggering — $226,400 for a kidney, $336,500 for a lung, $507,400 for a heart — estimated averages for first-year organ transplantation (in 2006 dollars). See "Estimated Charges for Organ Transplantation" Chart for a real eye-opener!

Bioethicists' Perspective Richard Morris Titmuss is the bioethicists' poster child — the economist who set the altruism concept into motion. All organ donations should be a gift without any ties to remuneration.     Richard Morris Titmuss       That's fine in a perfect world where there's enough altruism-only organ donors — people who really donate their organs. The problem is that the dream doesn't fit reality. Out of 303 million potential organ donors in the United States, only 10,847 made the decision to donate. The shortage is severe! It is a failed system by itself.       Obviously altruism-only organ donation is not the complete answer. However, Donate-For-Life™ has the answer: Our Solution — a timely and workable method. And it works side-by-side with altruism.