People with liver failure and cirrhosis die every year because there are not enough livers available. Who should receive the treasured life-saving organ? There is an organ allocation system in place, which has evolved over time, which ranks patients who need liver transplants. Without such a system, there would be confusion and chaos. How can we fairly determine who should receive the next available liver? What criteria should move a candidate toward the head of the line? Age? Medical diagnoses? Insurance coverage? Employment status? Worth to society? Criminal record? An artist's rendering of the liver from the 19th century. Consider the following 6 hypothetical examples of patients who need a liver transplant to survive. How would you rank them? Would those toward the bottom of your list agree with your determination? A 50-yr-old unemployed poet is an alcoholic. He has been sober for 1 year. His physicians believe he will not survive another year
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.