Cornea Transplant System Broken

[bush_cheney2004]

Continuing with on topic content instead of dead or dying Americans:

Transplant waiting lists and dialysis costs grow as kidney supply lags behind

Ballooning numbers of obese Canadians coupled with an aging population
are fuelling a sharp rise in kidney failure, but the demand for
transplants can't be met due to stagnant rates of organ donation.

....Peter Nickerson, a nephrologist and medical director of Transplant
Manitoba, said Canada has one of the lowest rates of cadaveric organ
donation in the Western world - about 14.5 per one million population.
By contrast, the rate in Spain is more than double that of Canada.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/transplant-waiting-lists-and-dialysis-costs-grow-as-kidney-supply-lags-behind/article569465/

Why won't/don't Canadians donate at a higher rate ? Why is there no national system to coordinate transplant resources ? Did it take the tainted blood supply fiasco just to get that system organized to basic international standards ?

[waldo]

Continuing with on topic content instead of dead or dying Americans:

no, no, no... no false equivalencies are allowed here in your puffed up, self-declared pursuit of the "greater CanAm dynamic" (aka, trolling101).

you can choose to express your concern trolling for a couple of hundred Canadians dying per year waiting for transplants... you can do so, while I continue to highlight your hypocrisy in refusing to acknowledge/accept and raise a significantly increased concern for the ~18 Americans dying per day... the ~7000 Americans dying per year... waiting for transplants.

[waldo]

Why won't/don't Canadians donate at a higher rate ?

asked (many times now)... answered in kind (many times now) - you can keep asking... I'll keep answering... you can keep ignoring and refusing to acknowledge:

.

what your linked article doesn't bother to differentiate is how organ/tissue rates are calculated in the U.S./Spain versus Canada. Canada's figures only include completed transplants - actual donated tissue/organs transplanted. U.S./Spain rates include non-transplant numbers. When considering actual donor transplants, those transplant procedures completed, the ratio for Canada is 3.2 organs transplanted per donor... for the U.S., 3.0 per donor... and for Spain, 2.6 per donor.

your linked article also fails to differentiate a most significant factor - that of presumed consent! Spain has a presumed consent practice/law... organs/tissues will always be donated unless a contributor/source has formally "opted out". In the U.S., only 20 states have signed on to the latest 2007 iteration of the U.S. Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA)... in Canada, a donor/family members speaking on behalf of the donor must formally give consent.

your biggest fail is relying on a cut&paste that doesn't factor your (claimed) country's freedom... expressed in increased U.S. mortality figures! When considering the main causes associated with cadaver donations, Canada has a relatively low mortality rate relative to Spain and the United States: for example, Canada's age standardized per year road death rate is 101 road deaths/million population... Spain's rate is 142 road deaths/million... the U.S. rate is 156 road deaths/million. Equally, Canada's age standardized per year mortality rate due to gunshot wounds is 35 gunshot deaths/million population... the U.S. rate is 126 gunshot deaths/million population. Apparently, not having as many cadavers available just might be a contributor to donor rates - go figure!!!

.

[Bonam]

Why won't/don't Canadians donate at a higher rate ? Why is there no national system to coordinate transplant resources ? Did it take the tainted blood supply fiasco just to get that system organized to basic international standards ?

The government already taxes us Canadians for our healthcare. They can't have our organs too. I'm taking those things to my cryonic chamber with me.

[bush_cheney2004]

The government already taxes us Canadians for our healthcare. They can't have our organs too. I'm taking those things to my cryonic chamber with me.

I think this is certainly part of it.....as if universal health care insurance means universal access to organs and tissue. Not directly related is the ongoing story of hospital parking charges for Canadian patients. There is a growing minority who feels that paying for parking at the hospital or clinic constitutes an additional 'tax' for health care. So complete is the expectation and "right" to health care (it's not a right, not even in Canada), these folks have extended the coverage to commercial parking !!

So there may be a mind set that has divorced itself from reality vis-a-vis state financed health care and donor rates. This is counter-intuitive, whereas one would expect a much higher donor rate to support the needs in all provinces. However, this does not change the need for a national coordination program as proposed by many Canadian organizations.

[waldo]

However, this does not change the need for a national coordination program as proposed by many Canadian organizations.

as I pointed out to you graphically and with numbers, it's too bad the inefficiencies in the U.S. system result in the discard of so many its donated organs... while ~18 Americans die daily waiting.

[waldo]

The government already taxes us Canadians for our healthcare. They can't have our organs too. I'm taking those things to my cryonic chamber with me.

should some eventuality of a 'presumed consent' ever come to fruition, you'd simply need to "opt out"... the same way as you need to "opt in" today if you want to donate your organs.