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HOW TO END THE SHORTAGE OF ORGAN DONORS''Who should get the transplant?'' (Science & Technology, Nov. 9) poses a difficult question: How do we determine who will get the opportunity for a new lease on life and who will die? There are 41,000 people nationwide on the waiting list for kidney transplants, and only 8,500 transplants expected. Resolution of the debate over allocation based on patient ''need'' and geography is not going to address the real problem--the severe shortage of donor organs. Instead of introducing more government regulations, there is a simple, more equitable way to decide which patients are first in line to receive life-saving organs. A program encouraging healthy people to sign organ donor cards as ''insurance'' against their own possible future medical needs would result in a significant increase in available organs. If preference is given to transplant candidates based on their own sign-up date as organ donors, there will be enough organs for all the patients on the waiting lists.
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Updated Nov. 25, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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