327 Market

On the way home from work yesterday, The Amazing Mrs S shared some of the
information she gleaned from her Ethics and Medicine class that afternoon.
If you are on a waiting list for an organ transplant, the following factors will
have a bearing on whether or not you get that organ. this list isn't complete,
its just the ones that stuck in my craw... er, mind.
1. Wealth. Seems the the richer you are, the better able you are to deal with
the expensive medical bills. Death is always cheaper than life. Bottom line,
baby.
2. Ethnicity and Gender. If you are a woman from a traditional "middle
eastern" family, your chances for recovery are low, ergo, your chances of
getting an organ are low. Statistics don't lie, baby. One of the requirments
is that you have "community support." Patients without that generally
die. She said there were cases where multiple family members needed new livers
(becuase of hepatitis picked up in foreign countries) and the family patriarch
decided that the males will get treatment and not the females. That means that
the women lack "community support" A cultural difference that is
protected by the law. Or something. I could be getting this all wrong.
I understand there are limited supplies of organs and its expensive and risky.
Its just so creepy.
So the moral of the story is, getting sick is best avoided. Especially if you
are a poor, middle eastern woman.