Government oversight already helping Americans die

"There is no doubt that organs that can help somebody and have a survival benefit are being discarded every day." DR. DORRY SEGEV, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

~ ~ ~   In Discarding of Kidneys,  System Reveals Its Flaws

ST. PAUL — Last year, 4,720 people died while waiting for kidney transplants in the United States. And yet, as in each of the last five years, more than 2,600 kidneys were recovered from deceased donors and then discarded without being transplanted, government data show. 

Those organs typically wound up in a research laboratory or medical waste incinerator. In many instances, organs that seemed promising for transplant based on the age and health of the donor were discovered to have problems that made them not viable. 

The current process is made inefficient, they say, by an outdated computer matching program, stifling government oversight, the overreliance by doctors on inconclusive tests and even federal laws against age discrimination. The result is a system of medical rationing that arguably gives all candidates a fair shot at a transplant but that may not save as many lives as it could.    New York Times