Sunday, March 02, 2008

UNOS' strange priorities

In a story in today's Indianapolis Star, LifeSharers member Dan Emerson sums up the idea behind LifeSharers: "the golden rule is a good road map for life, and those who promise to donate ought to move ahead of those who don't."

United Network for Organ Sharing spokeswoman Amanda Claggett disagrees: "The LifeSharers approach would essentially punish transplant candidates who haven't made a particular personal decisiion. And while we value that particular decision, we believe that the transplant system should neither reward nor punish people for their personal decisions or beliefs."

Ms. Claggett's statement shows exactly why so many people die in the United States waiting for organ transplants. UNOS, which runs the national transplant waiting list, could reward registered organ donors by giving them first access to donated organs. If UNOS did this, the supply of organs would go way up and thousands of lives would be saved every year. But UNOS would apparently rather let these people die than "punish" non-donors.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about all those people who signed up on OTHER donor registries, Mr. Undis? Why punish them for not signing up on YOURS?

Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous:

LifeSharers doesn't punish anybody. We invite everyone to sign up and join LifeSharers. Everyone is welcome, and membership is free.