Cash and compassion

摘要

Few ordeals could be more distressing than waiting for a replacement kidney, lung or even heart, knowing that your life depends on receiving one. In the US alone, more than 6000 people die every year while waiting for an organ transplant, and in the UK last year the figure was over 400. Many others endure great pain and distress, often in hospital on life support, while queuing for available organs. In 2003 in the US, only around 20,000 out of the 83,000 waiting for transplants received them -a tragedy by anyone's standards. What makes this suffering all the more tragic is that much of it could be prevented, and many more lives saved, by changing the way organs are donated. The change is controversial, but it is simple enough: make it legal to buy and sell organs on the open market. At a stroke this could significantly increase the number and quality of available organs, and so reduce suffering and save lives. This, surely, is the bottom line.