Understanding the Organ Transplant Process
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-03-29/understanding-organ-transplant-process
Former Vice President Cheney's recent heart transplant has drawn attention to organ donation. Diane and a panel of experts discuss how recipients are chosen and what potential donors need to know.
Guests
Dr. Samer Najjar
director of heart failure and the transplant program, MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
Robert Veatch
professor of medical ethics, Georgetown University
Walter Graham
executive director, president and CEO, UNOS Foundation
Dick Teresi
science journalist and author of “The Undead: Organ Harvesting, the Ice-Water Test, Beating Heart Cadavers--How Medicine is Blurring the Line Between Life and Death”
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
Can you ask your guest(s) how how long it will be before it'll be possible to print (or grow) a heart like they do with less complicated body parts such as bladders?
The last hour discussed the federal mandate for health insurance coverage. The question that is never addressed is why I have to pay for heart and other organ transplants. For my car insurance, I can choose the amount of coverage I want. Why can't I do this for health insurance? I'm over 55 and I would choose not to pay for this coverage given the chance. Let those who would participate pay instead of all of us.
People can get reverse mortgages on their houses; why shouldn't they be able to get reverse mortgages on their bodies so that the many useful organs and tissues could be harvested in a calm and organized way after their deaths?
The amount of money received by each person could be based on the projected usefulness of the tissues. This would be one way to take care of organ and tissue shortages and to stop the grisly uncontrolled cadaver-robbing that has gone on in the past.
I have been an organ donor since 1983 when I got my first license, unfortunately 3 years later my brother was in a car accident and we donated his heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and eyes. I am not sure if Dick Cheney's family members are organ donors, but one of the requirements to receive an organ should be not only that you are a needy candidate but a record that your family are also organ donors. I cannot believe that EVERYONE cannot see the value in being one.
Is the patient's behavior taken into account? I have heard Mr. Cheney is a heavy smoker. I would assume that those who have a history a abusing their bodies would be moved lower on the list.
The good doctor glossed over a determining factor. If the patient cannot afford the very expensive aftercare,they are disqualified. A pure 1% er program.
I wonder if the family of the donor knows that they're loved one's heart was transplanted into former Vice President, Dick Cheney. And if they do know, are they upset? I know that I'd be devastated to know that the beating heart of my loved one was keeping alive a man who is widely regarded to be a war criminal. Perhaps some people would be alright with this situation, but I would find it extremely troubling. Also the fact that he receives the top-notch care that my family cannot afford is extremely unfair.
It's pretty clear from Diane's line of questioning that, in the case of Dick Chaney, Diane favors the healthcare plan that former congressman Alan Grayson accused Republicans of having: "DIE QUICKLY". @shelleysays, too.
I don't believe this conversation would even be occurring if it was, say, Jimmy Carter--a beloved elderly liberal Democrat--who had received a heart or other organ transplant.
My husband had a double lung transplant at Brigham & Women's in Boston. He has an excellent surgeon & team but it has been a hard road. He has dealt with kidney failure, pancreatitis and cataracts due to his meds. A friend of ours just got a heart after 2 years on the list & 3 months in the hospital. It is a unique experience.
My husband had a double lung transplant at Brigham & Women's in Boston. He has an excellent surgeon & team but it has been a hard road. He has dealt with kidney failure, pancreatitis and cataracts due to his meds. A friend of ours just got a heart after 2 years on the list & 3 months in the hospital. It is a unique experience.
Goodness knows I have no love lost for Dick Cheney, but I think his age should not be a factor in considering whether or not he gets a heart transplant. I think the more important factors are surviveability and support. Why would we put an organ in a person whose body would just reject it. My dad and I took care of my ailing mother for two years before she passed and it was not easy. I don't think age should be considered just as I wouldn't want them to consider whether a poor black girl from the southside of Chicago was more or less worthy than a rich white girl in the Buckhead end of Atlanta. Besides who is to say whether Dick is suppose to live until 110 years old. Robert - West Valley City, UT
Does anyone recall the first heart transplant patient? It was Louis Washkansky, a 54 year old man with a very weak heart. At the time, I do not recall anyone questioning why a younger person was not given a heart transplant or that Mr. Washkansky was too old or rich to be the first.
If Diane Rehm had a history of five heart attacks, would she want anyone to question her right to receive a heart transplant? Would she want a national talk show host drilling medical ethics experts with thinly veiled questions about the fairness of receiving a heart transplant?
Given that we will never -really- know whether Mr. Cheney received preferential treatment in receiving a heart transplant, I believe that the question that needs to be asked is this: During the 21 months that Mr. Cheney was on the recipient list, precisely how many MATCHING donor hearts became available? If the answer is ONLY ONE - and he got it - then the duration of his wait-time as proof of non-preferential treatment is irrelevant. (Hopefully the guests won't hedge, or include hearts that were unsuitable for Mr. Cheney anyway - I want to know how many times he was passed over because another recipient out-ranked him on the list.)
I'm not saying the man who argued for an illegal unprovoked war in Iraq doesn't deserve a heart transplant, I'm saying that I'd be devastated if it was someone I knew and loved.
Hey, maybe he'll live long enough to see that it was a giant mistake. Maybe he'll live long enough to get tried in a court of law.
I want to echo this commenter's sentiment about fairness, and am disappointed the point wasn't addressed during the show. The show did, however, touch on the issue of whether we should as a nation adopt a policy of "opting out" of organ donation rather than the current opt-in structure. I believe it is important to adopt the opt out policy so that we are able to relegate those who choose to deny others the benefit of their organs to the bottom of waiting lists, should they at some point need a donation themselves. I would hope that this policy would also encourage more people to elect to be organ donors.
@shelleysays, why would you be devastated unless you felt the recipient was unworthy of--i.e., "doesn't deserve"--the organ transplant?
Nice try at walking back your initial comments, but I'm not buying it. They reflect the true colors of so many so-called progressives, who have "tolerance" and "compassion" for and support the "rights" of others, but only those who adhere to their own dogma.
msandrews - correct. I do not feel that Mr. Cheney would deserve the heart of anyone in my family. He wants to live just like anyone else, but he didn't give that same option to thousands of Iraq and Afganistan citizens. Further, I don't think denying an organ is nearly the same as actively planning and executing a war. There are many people who should answer for the atrocities of the last ten years, but very few - W, Cheney, maybe Rumsfeld - are basically barred from traveling overseas for fear of prosecution. I beleive in compassion, absolutely, but I draw the line at compassion for unrepentant war mongerers. We all have our limits.
At one point in this discussion, Diane asked if anyone had been turned down due to lack of insurance. Last year, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer ended transplant coverage for Arizona medicaid patients, including those already on transplant lists. At least two people died. Here is an ABC News article on the issue: http://abcn.ws/eHnGHM.
As an Arizona citizen I am certain that there were other ways to address the budget shortfall. It might be one thing had they changed the rules for future medicaid patients, but to pull it from people on transplant lists was absolutely heartless.
So, just to be clear @shelleysays, you apparently favor and advocate death, which is to say the death penalty, for Dick Chaney for his alleged misdeeds. I guess that means you're also an advocate for the death penalty in general, as well as summary executions without conviction in a legitimate court of law, or even a trial. (Or could that be just in the case of someone of whom you vehemently disapprove?)
While I can't cite any specific examples at the moment, I'm pretty certain that convicted criminals--even those on death row--are eligible for and have received organ transplants. Dick Chaney hasn't been convicted of anything--except by your own personal opinion, which fails to take in the full orb of all the facts, including the fact that military action against Iraq was legally authorized by multiple UN resolutions.
I suppose we all have difficulty seeing the hypocrisy of our own positions...