Fairness in liver transplants can be a constitutional issue

Liver failure is a terrible way to die: a painful belly full of fluid, vomiting blood, mental confusion, and repeated hospitalizations. The only cure is liver transplantation but, as is the case for all types of transplants, there aren’t nearly enough donor livers to go around.

To maximize the use of donated livers, a valuable and scarce resource, it is essential to select patients who are most likely to survive the surgery and thrive afterward. This is done by each transplant center’s liver transplant selection committee. It is a difficult task. Under half of patients evaluated by liver transplant committees are put on the waiting list. But there is a dark side to this calculus: deciding who will get a new liver also means deciding who won’t, which means they could die from liver failure within months, or possibly even days.

International Conference on Organ Donation and Transplantation Science

July 15-16, 2019 Sydney, Australia

Please visit: https://world.geneticconferences.com/

#transplantation  #organdonation  #donatelife #donar #kidney #lung #heart #transplant

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