Moral Question on performing Liver Transplants

[MrBug708]

There is a recent article in the paper where 4 Japanese mafia figures received liver transplants by a famed Doctor here at UCLA. While there is really not much media flak that they have received, it does bring up a valid point. Should Doctor's bring in their own personal feelings into whether or not they perform the operation? Does the ability to be able to "pay" for an operation mean you have a much bigger right to a liver?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...3_liver01.html

LOS ANGELES — A Japanese gang boss and another suspected gangster who had liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center each donated $100,000 to the hospital soon after their surgeries, according to a published report.

The donations came from two of four Japanese gang figures who received liver transplants at a time when several hundred Los Angeles-area patients died while awaiting transplants, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The newspaper published stories about the transplants and the donations Thursday and Friday.

All four men are now are barred from returning to the United States because of their gang affiliations, criminal records, or both.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a donation of $100,000 came from Tadamasa Goto, 65, who leads a gang called the Goto-gumi.

A plaque on an entryway to a surgery office in the hospital reads, "In grateful recognition of the Goto Research Fund established through the generosity of Mr. Tadamasa Goto."

UCLA confirmed the amount of the donation and acknowledged it received a separate $100,000 donation from another man who had suspected gang affiliations, the newspaper reported. He donated in 2002, the year of his transplant. The newspaper did not identify that man because it was unable to reach him or his attorney.

Goto had been barred from entering the United States because of his criminal history. But with help from the FBI, he obtained a visa in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs, Jim Stern, retired chief of the FBI's Asian criminal enterprise unit in Washington, told the newspaper. The FBI did not help Goto arrange his surgery.

The surgeries were performed between 2000-04, and in each of those years more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the greater Los Angeles region, according to the newspaper.

UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate said the university had "no reason to question" the source of the donations. Both sums went to the surgery department's discretionary fund and were used to support research and education for the liver-transplant program.

When asked if the donations influenced the men's transplants, Tate said: "Absolutely not."

The surgeries were performed by renowned liver surgeon Dr. Ronald Busuttil, executive chairman of UCLA's surgery department.

There is no indication UCLA or Busuttil knew any of the patients had ties to Japanese gangs, the newspaper said. The hospital and Busuttil said they don't make moral judgments about patients.

U.S. transplant rules do not prohibit hospitals from performing transplants on foreign patients or those with criminal histories.

[Grammaticus]

Not to mention the right to your own body. If you want to sell an organ, you should be able to do it. Example, if you die your wife or family should be able to sell your organs if that is what you want to do.

Or you should be able to will your organs to a specific person. If that person does not have the correct match for your organ, then it goes to an acceptable match and your person gets an organ credit and priority for an organ that is a good match for them. Or something more creative than this, but you get the picture.