Here's a link to a 1 minute BBC video that was recorded when I was in Berlin recently, discussing how changes in the German transplant law (which presently allows only immediate family members to donate a kidney to someone) could be minimally modified to allow kidney exchange also.
(a short ad comes on first--my part is only 48 seconds:-)
Here's an accompanying story that somewhat confusingly (it seems to me) mashes together discussions of kidney exchange, global kidney exchange, and compensation for donors.
How an economist helped thousands get a new kidney By Ian Rose, BBC News
Berlin
...
"Roth, working with Tayfun Sönmez and Utku Unver, has revolutionised kidney donation around the world by using an economic theory to make kidneys more available.
...
"German exchange change?
"We meet in Berlin as Nobel laureates and other luminaries gather to discuss the future of healthcare. Alvin Roth is there in part because Germany is one of the only major industrialised countries where kidney exchange is not lawful.
"I think that the bureaucratic rules and regulations for kidneys as for every market have to be revisited from time to time in the in the light of new developments, and should be modernized and adapted to current capabilities," he says.
"When contacted about the issue the German Health Ministry tells me that they are planning to organise a public debate on the issue but have no schedule for that yet.
"Prof Roth says he understands the concerns behind the German ban. "They're worried about organ trafficking.
"They're worried that if I showed up and wanted to give you a kidney, it would mean that you had paid me and it may be I was a poor and desperate person. But on the other hand, if your brother shows up and wants to give you a kidney, they're not worried about that."
********
update:
The BBC publishes in many languages, and so you can read the story in Chinese, Indonesian, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, and here's a site that has translated it to Hungarian.
(a short ad comes on first--my part is only 48 seconds:-)
Here's an accompanying story that somewhat confusingly (it seems to me) mashes together discussions of kidney exchange, global kidney exchange, and compensation for donors.
How an economist helped thousands get a new kidney By Ian Rose, BBC News
Berlin
...
"Roth, working with Tayfun Sönmez and Utku Unver, has revolutionised kidney donation around the world by using an economic theory to make kidneys more available.
...
"German exchange change?
"We meet in Berlin as Nobel laureates and other luminaries gather to discuss the future of healthcare. Alvin Roth is there in part because Germany is one of the only major industrialised countries where kidney exchange is not lawful.
"I think that the bureaucratic rules and regulations for kidneys as for every market have to be revisited from time to time in the in the light of new developments, and should be modernized and adapted to current capabilities," he says.
"When contacted about the issue the German Health Ministry tells me that they are planning to organise a public debate on the issue but have no schedule for that yet.
"Prof Roth says he understands the concerns behind the German ban. "They're worried about organ trafficking.
"They're worried that if I showed up and wanted to give you a kidney, it would mean that you had paid me and it may be I was a poor and desperate person. But on the other hand, if your brother shows up and wants to give you a kidney, they're not worried about that."
********
update:
The BBC publishes in many languages, and so you can read the story in Chinese, Indonesian, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, and here's a site that has translated it to Hungarian.
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