Steve Jobs got a liver transplant in Tennessee. Why Tennessee?
Well, when it comes to organ transplantation, you’ve got a lot better chance of getting one sooner if you can go to the organ instead of waiting for the organ to come to you.
If you can be mobile and visit many transplantation centers and get on their waiting lists, you greatly increase your odds of success/survival.
What does it take to get this done?
Money.
“It’s not for anybody but the rich. It’s called multiple-listing, a practice some would say is unethical,” said Arthur Caplan, co-chair of the United Nations Task Force on organ trafficking and chair of the department of medical ethics at University of Pennsylvania.
When a person needs a liver in the United States, the patient must go to a hospital with a transplant center for an extensive medical, mental and financial consultation. Then if he or she is determined a good candidate, the patient will be put on that transplant center’s waiting list.
This of course not a jab at Jobs. This is how the game is set up and anyone with means would do whatever they could to improve their odds. But should it work this way?
