Donor Compensation, Not Kidney Swaps, Is The Only Solution To Growing Kidney Shortage In U.S.

Daily Markets | Mark Perry

Saturday’s New York Times article “60 Lives, 30 Kidneys, All Linked” features “the longest chain of kidney transplants ever constructed, linking 30 people who were willing to give up an organ with 30 who might have died without one.” The article has been getting a lot of attention and is currently the second most e-mailed NY Times article and fourth most viewed.

After a similar 13-kidney exchange in December 2009, which at that time was the world’s largest ever, Sally Satel and I wrote an article in the Washington Post, and excerpts of that article appear below, with some minor edits and updating:

Such organ exchanges are a godsend for sick people with loved ones who are willing to give them a kidney but are not biologically compatible with them. In an exchange, unmatched couples switch partners to form compatible pairs.

But now for the bad medical news.
Read more: http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2012/02/19/donor-compensation-not-kidney-swaps-is-the-only-solution-to-growing-kidney-shortage-in-u-s/