The American Spectator

The Public Policy

An Update on Transplant

By Lawrence Henry on 7.27.07 @ 12:08AM

(Page 2 of 2)

Organ donations are matched up by blood type. As my doc told me, "The ABs cycle through very fast, because blood type is not an issue." An AB can receive a donation from anyone. Meantime, Bs, Os, and As wait, and are likely to be among the sickest cited by Tom Simon in his smarmy op-ed.

Internet matchups do little or nothing to even out regional inequities in waiting time. They do nothing much, at least intentionally, to alleviate the generalized, ill-distributed, suffering of the waiting population of transplant candidates. And they will tend to give kidneys, like Mr. Simon's, to those applicants who, naturally or by design, ring all the right Oprah-like bells to move Mr. Simon's and his cohort's questionable consciences.

Make no mistake, Good Samaritan donorship is in the wind these days. Transplant medical centers are filled with literature on the subject from the National Kidney Foundation, the very establishment of transplant.

It all helps. But it's still not enough.

Letter to the Editor

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Taxes, Medicare