Some of what he said makes me want to NOT be a donor.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

From the story "Doctors Add Appeals Process for Kids Waiting for Adult Lung Transplants" AIR DATE: June 11, 2013

One DR. ARTHUR CAPLAN from New York University’s Langone Medical Center states in this interview with Ray Suarez of PBS's "NEWSHOUR":

One step is, how do you get into a particular transplant center? Each center makes decisions about the kind of patient that they think they could handle. Sometimes, it's money. If you don't have insurance, you may not be up -- accepted into a program that does a lung transplant or a liver transplant. They're costly and people do get turned away because they can't pay

Citizenship might count. Are you an illegal alien? That might matter to different hospitals. And, as I said, issues around drug abuse, or do you have a criminal record, are you psychologically or psychiatrically very disturbed make it unlikely you could comply. That's the first cut.

Once you get in, all the names of the people who get into a transplant center are on a national list. And distribution from that national list is handled by the United Network for Organ Sharing, a federally chartered group that operates with these rules we keep hearing about.

So think of it as two steps. One, each individual transplant center makes the call. Are we going to take you or we're not? And they may be different place to place. Once on the list, the distribution of organs is handled by a national program with very clear-cut rules about who goes first.

Read more and watch interview @ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june13/lung_06-11.html

Sorry, but it seems to me that the "older privileged" has a better chance than a poor child. Not cool in my opinion.

[pinboy3niner]

1. Choosing to NOT be a donor is the problem

We don't have enough donors.

[Marie Marie]

2. Exhibit #1: Dick Cheney

But the first poster is right - we need more donors. Hell, when I go, they can take anything worth taking.