The Ministry of Health is claiming that there are two problems with the way Matnat Chinam woks:
1. they arrange kidney donations for people that have not gone through the entire process and might not even have started dialysis, while people have been in the system and on dialysis for years and have been waiting for a kidney donation for a long time continue to wait with no donor. Essentially, they are saying, Matnat Chinam people skip the line over more serious cases.
2. the Ministry of Health does not like that donors through Matnat Chinam have the option of checking a box to limit their donation to Jewish recipients only. According to Ministry of Health guidelines, all donations have to be open to people of all races equally.
source: Kipa
I get the issue of equality among the potential recipients and not discriminating in donations, but someone who is a willing live donor should also have some say to whom he or she wants to donate, if they have such a preference. You cannot force people who are voluntarily donating an organ to donate it to whom you want to give it to, if they don't want to give it to that person. If you say people cannot donate unless they give an open donation to whomever ends up receiving it, it seems likely that the number of willing donors will suddenly drop drastically.
Regarding the line and how Matnat Chinam recipients basically jump the line, that makes sense to me. Perhaps all those with more serious kidney conditions that are closer to the head of the line should register with Matnat Chinam to be recipients and maybe they'll get kidneys faster than through the Ministry of Health. Or maybe the Ministry of Health needs to figure out how to improve their system of kidney donation so that more potential donors will sign up and donate through them and not need to go through private organizations like Matnat Chinam.
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"the Ministry of Health does not like that donors through Matnat Chinam have the option of checking a box to limit their donation to Jewish recipients only. According to Ministry of Health guidelines, all donations have to be open to people of all races equally."
ReplyDeleteWrong word. We're not a race. Alternatives: "open to people of all religions equally"; "open to people of all ethnic groups equally"; etc. But not "races".
Jews are a race, like it or not. But your point stands.
ReplyDeleteWho runs this "matnat chinam" organization?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the rules for "skipping" the line? In a country known for "protexia", the rules (and enforcement) should be made very clear.
(In the US, there was a scandal of sorts, when a prominent (baseball player) personality got to skip the line days before his eventual death, for a liver transplant, even though his well publicized alcohol drinking specifically barred him as a recipient in any case.)