What cost? Seems both a savings and the will of G_d to me. Or is life extention yet more of the realm of the wealthy.
What cost? Seems both a savings and the will of G_d to me. Or is life extention yet more of the realm of the wealthy.
Well, let's look at the case I know best, my own. I had a transplant (donated by my mother) in 1981. I was on Medicare and SSI -- on welfare, in other words. My dialysis was costing taxpayers $30K a year. Medicare paid for the operation, which cost about $40K then. We truly couldn't have afforded it, and after a life as a hippy, I had no insrance. Got the picture?
In the 21 years since, I have found Jesus, been restored to sanity, gotten married, had two children (adopting one from Guatemala), and paid taxes for the whole time, because I've been back to work. I became a conservative, and I'm now a minor paid voice in the VRWC (The American Prowler). I learned to play the clarinet at a professional level, and I've published in virtually every major newspaper in the world.
And I vote Republican.
Now, there are principled objections to be made to a presumed consent organ program -- too much power to the state, privacy, etc. All valid. But it should be clear to anyone that there are certain things that government can do, that no other entity can reasonably do. Administering an organ donation program is one of those things.
The national organ donation program we have now is a hodge-podge written by (among others) Al Gore. And it's widely known to those of us involved in it that different regions work more rapidly than others. Wisconsin and Florida, for example, have waiting lists of only months. New York/New Jersey and Boston lists are 4-5 years.
So if you can afford to move and wait, you can enhance your chances.
Till you or someone you know needs a kidney, you just really don't know what it's like. The difference between life on dialysis and life with a transplant is the difference between a motorized wheelchair and being able to walk.
Thanks for all the good wishes.