Unnecessary Bureaucratic Barriers or Appropriate Patient Protection?

This chapter asserts that transplant centers have very strong motivations to encourage people to become living kidney donors. It analyzes the average age of transplant recipients today, the surgical and postsurgical complications when an organ finally becomes available, and the hospitals' financial incentive to help kidney patients get transplants. The chapter also discusses the importance of donors' physical and psychological health in order to make sure that they are not harmed by either the operation, and competent to make the very serious decision. Following the author's lengthy evaluation process that she described, the chapter illustrates the frustrating barriers to donation, and presents a program to evaluate donors more quickly and efficiently. The chapter cites Belfast City Hospital in Ireland, which recently instituted a one-day evaluation, as an example. Ultimately, the chapter argues that transplant centers should have an approach that might increase the efficiency of donor evaluation, decrease wait times, and increase the number of donors without sacrificing the benefits that come with careful and rigorous screening.