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  Katja Grace replied on 05:55 PM on January 09, 2008
  What kind of policies are you looking at to solve this problem?
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  Katja Grace replied on 10:55 PM on January 09, 2008
  What kind of policies are you looking at to solve this problem?
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• Ryne Cee replied on 01:16 PM on January 17, 2008
  I think that compulsory organ donation upon death can make major strides toward reducing the shortages of available transplant organs. My belief is that you will run into considerable barriers attempting to persuade healthy people to undergo surgery, which is never without risk, to alleviate the shortage of kidneys available. You mention that you were investigating policy changes but you never elaborated on what these would be (also I am curious how you are considering implementing policy for what seems to be a voluntary decision to help those affected by kidney impairment). Anxious to hear more, RyneCee
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• Ryne Cee replied on 06:16 PM on January 17, 2008
  I think that compulsory organ donation upon death can make major strides toward reducing the shortages of available transplant organs. My belief is that you will run into considerable barriers attempting to persuade healthy people to undergo surgery, which is never without risk, to alleviate the shortage of kidneys available. You mention that you were investigating policy changes but you never elaborated on what these would be (also I am curious how you are considering implementing policy for what seems to be a voluntary decision to help those affected by kidney impairment). Anxious to hear more, RyneCee
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  Shawn Wilson replied on 06:21 AM on January 30, 2008
  have you researched cloning kidney's I don't know the laws or regulations or even the progress we have make in this area but it sounds like something we should be putting our money into...
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  Shawn Wilson replied on 11:21 AM on January 30, 2008
  have you researched cloning kidney's I don't know the laws or regulations or even the progress we have make in this area but it sounds like something we should be putting our money into...
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  Teresa Goodell replied on 07:56 AM on June 01, 2008
  I disagree with encouraging more healthy people to donate organs. Procedures like nephrectomy, partial hepatectomy, and partial pancreatectomy are simply too risky. These are not trivial procedures, and few people are willing to undergo them for an unknown stranger. Switching to an opt-out process for dead donors is desirable, but I acknowledge it will not solve the problem. Here's a crazy idea: let's start taking care of the people with diabetes, hypertension and family histories of organ failure. Let's keep them from reaching the state where they need a transplant. Let's provide them will health care, not just medical care.
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  Teresa Goodell replied on 11:56 AM on June 01, 2008
  I disagree with encouraging more healthy people to donate organs. Procedures like nephrectomy, partial hepatectomy, and partial pancreatectomy are simply too risky. These are not trivial procedures, and few people are willing to undergo them for an unknown stranger. Switching to an opt-out process for dead donors is desirable, but I acknowledge it will not solve the problem.
  
  Here's a crazy idea: let's start taking care of the people with diabetes, hypertension and family histories of organ failure. Let's keep them from reaching the state where they need a transplant. Let's provide them will health care, not just medical care.
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• Beth Punga replied on 09:41 PM on January 05, 2009
  "healthcare" is a must, but many people loose their kidneys through no fault of their own. To imply that kidney failure would not exist but for the sufferer's own faults is very unfair. My husband is slim, fit, with low blood pressure, and a healthy life style. He has been on hemo dialysis for 12 years, and worked a regular job for 10 of those years. More than one person I know has lost their kidneys to infections, also not their fault. No one deserves disease.
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The Dilemma of Organ Donation

Virginia Postrel Author; Blogger; Editor

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Virginia Postrel: today all my policy work is actually on trying to reform organ donation policy. I want to get rid of the waiting list for kidneys. That’s my goal. And I’m working with some other people on that. I became a kidney donor about a year ago. And from that experience was because a friend needed a kidney, I became aware that there is this really terrible problem. Terrible shortages. It’s not something that can be solved by everybody signing up as a donor on the driver’s license, because there actually aren’t enough deceased donors. Even if everybody donated, the numbers don’t add up because you have to die in the right way. So we need to get more living donors, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how that might be done. And the thing is it’s unlike curing AIDS or making Africa rich, all these things that people try to do. This is really – in the scheme of things – a small, solvable problem that we ought . . . It ought not to be a problem. We have all the tools available, but we do have to change some attitudes and institutions. So that’s my policy work now. Who knows if I will succeed in that? And not just me but some other people who I’ve worked with. That would be a big deal, at least for the 72,000 people who are waiting for kidneys.

Recorded on: 7/4/2007

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Virginia Postrel Author; Blogger; Editor

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Virginia Postrel is a political and cultural writer who is a contributing editor for The Atlantic, editor-in-chief of DeepGlamour.net, and the author of The Substance of Style and The Future and Its Enemies. She is currently writing a book on glamour for The Free Press.  She previously wrote an economics column in The New York Times for six years, served as editor of Reason and has worked as a reporter for Inc. Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.  She  serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights and is a popular blogger and speaker. She was educated at Princeton University and lives in Los Angeles.

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