Posted on 01/20/2011 6:08:36 AM PST by Daffynition
What's wrong with Steve Jobs? Apple won't say. On Monday, the company said he was taking a medical leave—his third since 2004—but refused to disclose why. Yesterday Apple touted its market prospects in a conference call but again said nothing about its CEO's health. You can argue that Jobs' medical privacy is more important than the interests of Apple's investors. But there's another reason why he should tell us what's going on, and it's bigger than money. It's life and death.
Two years ago, Jobs gamed the transplant allocation system to get a liver that could have saved somebody else. At the time, skeptics doubted that he should have received the organ, since he'd been treated for pancreatic cancer—in fact, he may have sought the liver because of the cancer—and the likelihood of the cancer's recurrence made him a bad bet for putting the liver to best use. If his health is now failing because of the cancer, that suspicion may be vindicated.
Jobs lives in Northern California, but he got his liver in Tennessee. Why? Different parts of the country have different waiting lists, and the wait in Northern California was three times longer than the wait in Tennessee. In fact, the median wait in the Tennessee area where Jobs snagged his liver was around 15 percent of the national average. Jobs confirmed last year that this is why he went to Tennessee: "My doctors here advised me to enroll in a transplant program in Memphis, Tennessee, where the supply/demand ratio of livers is more favorable than it is in California here."* Legally, you're allowed to get on multiple waiting lists around the country. That's how you game the system.
So why doesn't everybody do this? [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
A “great title to the article” bump
“Well if its legal whats the problem? “
Actually, the problem—which Slate would never dare state—is that it is ILLEGAL to pay donors for organ transplants. Absent that obscene policy, we would not have literally thousands of potential organ transplant recipients dying every year on the waiting list. Jobs used his wealth to end-around a government-created mess.
Of course when the Organ Transplant Act was enacted in 1984, no one characterized it as encouraging “death panels” but the practical result is that patients every year live and die based purely on luck-of-the-draw or decisions about who “deserves” the limited supply of available donated organs. Yet another reason we don’t want government running all of health care.
ONE QUESTION: David Crosby-he had money,fame, and he abused his body big time-was he entitled?
Hollywood LOVES the well-off sociopath demographic, but in real life, wealthy people cannot afford to be criminals. Poor people have nothing to lose when they get caught. Well-off people can lose everything.
I assume he got with a bottle of Chianti...
So, I take it you favor an open market on livers, so that only the people with the most money will get the transplants, instead of everybody having an even chance.
But hey ... I'm sure some smart Wall Street investment firm will figure out that they can make a pretty penny selling organ insurance. And then you're back to the same spot.
Clearly, you're not aware that the liberals see this as a way of "leveling the playing field". I remember when Katrina hit NO and looting was rampant in the city, including pictures of residents stealing designer jeans. That's when Celine Dion said: Let them steal them. They probably never have had a pair of designer jeans! That's the way they think. Clearly, when you make $158,333.33 per day (http://www.salary-money.com/celine-dion-salary-38000000.php), you get a warped sense of fairness. Yet, I don't see her in NO handing out jeans that she paid for. Wonder why.
Chinese Prisoner perhaps?
Wonder why there's such an abundance of transplant livers in Tennessee?
So what.
shall we publish the name of every liver transplant patient who dies within 2 years as an organ thief??
Problem is that Jobs should have never received a Liver Transplant if he had pancreatic cancer. As a general rule, you cannot get a liver transplant if cancer has spread to other internal organs...especially the pancreas (since there is no real cure for pancreatic cancer)
I do not think Jobs getting on the Tennessee transplant list gamed the system....it was his getting an organ that he had no business getting. His transplant appears to be a waste of a good liver
Except wouldn't the pool of organs be larger now, since there was a greater incentive to donate?
Liver App Liver App :D :D
“Wonder why there’s such an abundance of transplant livers in Tennessee?”
My guess would be bad roads and no seat belt.
Attacking a guy with liver cancer for doing everything he can to survive, well, as the Joker said, "Even for a guy like me, that's cold."
Is the pursuit of market share worth throwing away all pretense of compassion or dignity? Call Jobs a control freak? No problem. Call him a jerk who treats subordinates poorly? That's part of the game. Claim his products are overpriced? Totally understandable market tactic.
Disparaging him for getting on multiple waiting lists for a liver transplant when the clock is ticking on his life? That's beyond any standard of decency. EVERY LIVER TRANSPLANT VICTIM CAN BE ATTACKED IN THE SAME WAY BECAUSE EVERY LIVER COULD HAVE BEEN USED ON SOMEONE ELSE.
Attacking a guy with liver cancer for doing everything he can to survive, well, as the Joker said, "Even for a guy like me, that's cold."
Is the pursuit of market share worth throwing away all pretense of compassion or dignity? Call Jobs a control freak? No problem. Call him a jerk who treats subordinates poorly? That's part of the game. Claim his products are overpriced? Totally understandable market tactic.
Disparaging him for getting on multiple waiting lists for a liver transplant when the clock is ticking on his life? That's beyond any standard of decency. EVERY LIVER TRANSPLANT VICTIM CAN BE ATTACKED IN THE SAME WAY BECAUSE EVERY LIVER COULD HAVE BEEN USED ON SOMEONE ELSE.
I have no problem with him doing this. I’m willing to bet that the man has donated big bucks to research involving pancreatic cancer and other cancers. Just because he happens to be rich, happens to have the wherewithal to do what he did makes no difference to me. There will be plenty of fallout that will benefit many others. His extended lifespan is most likely going to be helpful to lots of people.
I also think that if his number was up, God would have already called him home. He’s still living for a reason.
I have no problem with him doing this. I’m willing to bet that the man has donated big bucks to research involving pancreatic cancer and other cancers. Just because he happens to be rich, happens to have the wherewithal to do what he did makes no difference to me. There will be plenty of fallout that will benefit many others. His extended lifespan is most likely going to be helpful to lots of people.
I also think that if his number was up, God would have already called him home. He’s still living for a reason.
Saleton claims to be a “liberal Republican.” Do you need to know anything else?
“Only if you’re smart enough to ask, apparently. My husband died waiting for a liver. We had no idea that there were multiple lists one could be on.”
So sorry about your husband.
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