The list is long and it only keeps growing. As of today, there are close to 90,000 people waiting for an organ donation: from livers and lungs to kidneys and hearts.
Many patients spend years waiting for that vital organ to save their life. Others are frustrated and taking the search into their own hands, sidestepping the list and seeking their own organ donors using newspaper ads, highway billboards and online websites like ToddNeedsaLiver.com.
But the move to find these “live” donors has some crying foul: saying the match-making websites are violating federal law and ethical codes by turning organs into commodities — items to be bought and sold on EBay. A second opinion on the future of organ donation.
Guests:
Dr. Jay Lowney, Medical Director of Matchingdonors.com
Bob Hickey, first patient to receive a transplant through Matchingdonors.com
Dr. Mark Fox, Chair of the Ethics Committee at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.