Sunday, May 08, 2005
 
Predicting Next Month's Crisis Today

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch spends a lot of pages in it's A1 section today, including two thirds of the front page, thumping on the desk with this shoe: Lives on the line: Organ donors which tells the horror that can befall live donors. Live donors are people who give blood marrow, kidneys, and whatnot without having a motorcycle accident first.

The gripping lead:
    Healthy people who donate organs to those desperate for transplants enter a world of unknowns.

    Even the medical community does not know how big a risk they face.

    Some get hurt. Some die. Some need transplants later.

    The Post-Dispatch spent a year examining living donations. The newspaper interviewed about 200 donors, family members, transplant surgeons, hospital officials, government officials and scholars, and studied medical records and transplant research.

    The newspaper's investigation found:
    • No one knows how many donors have died or suffered serious injuries or complications, because donors are not systematically tracked.

    • The lack of comprehensive data makes it impossible for donors to assess the risks of what is portrayed as an ultimate altruistic deed.

    • There is no agreement on who can donate an organ or how to evaluate potential donors. Those approved to donate include children as young as 10, drug addicts, mentally ill people and people who might be selling their organs, which federal law prohibits.

    • The government does not regulate organ donations from living donors. Each hospital that performs transplants makes its own rules, which vary widely.
Excellent work, Post-Dispatch. As a result of your fearmongering, perhaps we can look forward to you treating us, in a couple months or a year, to a fearmongering expose on the declining number of live donors.

With a clear conscience, of course. Organizations don't have consciences, and some don't even have consistency.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:29 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home
 
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."