Saturday, May 05, 2012

ORGAN GRINDING

An interesting article for once from Ruth Pollard in today's Age about attempts by an Israeli surgeon to revolutionise the way Israel manages its organ donation program - Bedside chat that changed Israel's rules for organ transplants.

Last month, Israel "became the first country in the world to give transplant priority to patients who have agreed to donate their organs over those who have not - that is, allowing something other than medical need to be considered."

Whilst Pollard says "Israel is well down the international rankings, with only 14 per cent of the adult population registered as donors, up from 12 per cent in 2010," the accompanying chart indicates the figure is 10.35% compared with Australia's 31.96% suggesting the figures in the chart are out of date.

Still, as with most things, Israel appears to be well up in its own region if the paltry .09% figure for Lebanon is concerned.

Interestingly, with the exception of the statistic provided for Israel's northern neighbour, Pollard shies away from revealing other statistics for the region and fails to mention that organs available on Israel's organ list are also available for its neighbours and there have been instances where the organs of Israelis have been transplanted into Palestinians and vice versa.

Surely, just an oversight on her part?

No comments: