I would not presume that the system is as perfect as you may think. I am a physician. I have been present at the time of harvest. I have seen which communities the organs come from and where they end up going to. I have sat-in to witness these so called reviewing councils...and trust me, they are not completly immune to some corruption.
It is a business plain and simple. Most organs do not come from the very sick battling some chronic illness, because their organs are not likely good candidates to begin with. Most come from a completely healty young individual in some sort of accident/ sudden death/ shooting. Most are not pre-designated donors....but rather, those whose families are "convinced" about the beauty of organ donation. They go to those that have been successful in getting onto a transplant list...by whichever method. Usually, it is someone fortunate or wealthy enough to have great insurance before they became sick. The next of kin/ family of donor have to be content with only the warm fuzzy feeling they helped one or several people. Or better yet, their loved one continues to live and there is some sort of legacy preservation in the life of the recipient. Everyone else gets paid...facility, harvesting team, transplant team, transport team. And of course, the recipient gets another chance at life...all the while continuing to use their great insurance to continue payments for lifelong medical care/ immunosuppresion.
If you do not believe me...see how many of people on your local transplant list are non-insured. The dirty secret is, when it all boils down-- its not really all about helping people, its about who can pay to keep your facility credentialed to allow you to keep doing these procedures.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline..._police_i.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...3.html?sub=new
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2008032103015
For those of you that know anything about medical centers....look up your local places from this list below---it is from a couple years back. For example...in Los Angeles, the hospitals achieving the highest rates of successful harvesting among eligible donors were....LA County USC and Harbor/UCLA. Where is Cedars Sinai, UCLA Med, UCI ??? Weird huh? The largest facilities that actually perform the transplants did not make the list. Hmmm...maybe that is because those places only GET the organs. The other places only GIVE the organs. How is that fair? Do we not have moral obligation to provide organs to the same communities and populations from which the organs are coming from? Oh wait...those are hospitals that serve the uninsured, the underinsured, or worst...the illegals.
http://newsroom.hrsa.gov/releases/20...ion-medals.htm
Whatever....you are completely blind if you believe that the only problem with our system is the lack of organs.
I am not an organ donor, and never will be.