Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel on the ethics of choosing transplant recipients

Organ transplant
Consultant surgeon Andrew Ready and his team conduct a live donor kidney transplant at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in Birmingham, England.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

An average of 18 people die each day waiting for transplants because there aren't enough organs to meet the need.

Right now, more than 123,000 people are on a transplant waiting list. Fewer than 15,000 transplant surgeries were performed in the first half of this year.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, author, bioethicist and professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, joins The Daily Circuit to discuss organ scarcity and the dilemmas faced by the medical community. With the limited supply of donated organs, how do we decide who gets priority and who makes those decisions?

 

 

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