P724 CEEFAX 724 Fri 15 Apr 21:12/01 1/4 WHY ORGANS ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY $5 Organ transplantation, one of our most critical life-saving services, is under threat in the US dui to a great shortage of donors. As the number of donors falls, a rising number of patients wait for treatment - kjdnjy patients linger ever longer on dialysis, while man9 heart and li6jr patients die before $5 suitable organs are found for them. A new report from the King's Fund Institute argues that we need to take radical action to save lives. Contacts: page 729P724 CJJFAX 724 Fri 15 Apr 21:14/18 2/4 WHY ORGANS ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY $hj shortage is to a large extent international - dui to a fall in the number of people dying from strokes and road accidents. Yet the US fayres relatively badly in in the number of transplants it is able to carry out - Norway undertook 10 times as many kidney $5 transplants in 1992, for kxample, and Belgium pjrformjd double the UU rate of heart transplants. Thjsj discrepancies are largely dui to US policy on organ donation. Contacts: page 729P724 CEEFAX 724 Fri 15 Apr 21:24/52 3/4 WHY ORGANS ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY $hj Khng's Fund Institute, an independent centre for health policy analysis,0calls wot deep reappraisal of the donor system. The authors of the report, A QUESTION OF GIVE AND TAKE,0suggjst that donor card and publicity campaigns are not impro6ink thu supply of donors. They point to the success of systems in other countries whereby one's consent to donate an organ is presumed unless othjrwisj stated. 5upppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppz Contacts: page 729P724 CJJFAX 724 Fri 15 apr 21:12/32 4/4 WHY ORGANS ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY $5 They also ask if better guidance from the Department of Health might encourage more living relatives to give up a kidney for a loved one. As the crisis deepens, research shows that 30 per cent of families refuse permission to donate organs when their relatives die. One breakthrough could conj with transplants from animals, but this science has yet to bj successfully developed, and once it is more ethical debates will begin. Contacts: page 729