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<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>From:
"Joseph C. Kaplan" <jkaplan@tenzerlunin.com><BR>R'n IE: "The idea is
really scary and makes me very uncomfortable, but it's hard to<BR>make a moral
judgment given that everyone comes out ahead - the recipient<BR>gets a kidney
and the donor gets badly needed money."<BR><BR>Not everybody. The poor
person whose condition is worse than the rich person's but doesn't get the
kidney and dies comes out way behind.<BR><BR>Joseph Kaplan
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<DIV>>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>If a much larger pool of kidneys becomes available I don't know how or why
the poor person would be any worse off than he is now. Right now many
people die because there aren't enough kidneys. You seem to think a large
number of deaths is acceptable, as long as rich and poor have an equal chance of
dying. But you must realize that right now rich people have a better
chance of surviving any illness you can think of, because of greater access
and knowledge, better networking, ability to travel to top-notch
transplant centers, better nutrition and a host of other factors.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Assume that insurance would pay the donor just as it pays the
surgeon. How would the poor be worse off? Or assume that the poor
would be less likely to have insurance. OK, again, if donors were paid,
how would the poor be worse off than they are now?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Assume that Medicaid would do for the poor whatever it presently
does. Our poor man who needs a kidney transplant is already worse off than
the rich man with good insurance. Will he be even /worse/ off when the
donor is paid and not only the doctor and the hospital?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I bet you could get a lot of people to donate a kidney for the cost of a
single week in the ICU of an American hospital. That would end up
saving money for insurance companies and for Medicaid.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Are you assuming that donors would be paid out of the patient's
pocket? Why make that assumption?</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>================</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2
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