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60 Minutes on UCLA's Liver Transplant for Yakuza Crime Boss
60 Minutes aired a startling piece Sunday on the questionable
liver transplants received by Japanese crime bosses at UCLA Medical Center during 2000-2004. Despite a long list of in-need American patients ahead of him, Tadamasa Goto, described as
Japan's John Gotti, received a liver in just six weeks after allegedly paying upwards of $1 million in cash. Dotting her story with compelling details of the Yakuza subculture, reporter Lara Logan explains how a well-known foreign criminal received excellent medical care--perhaps at the expense of innocent Americans.
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Comments
Question
I have been a transplant professional for 20 years. What follows is a list unanswered questions. (& comments)
A. Liver transplant in the US is based on "how sick you are at the time of listing" -The sicker you are the higher you are on the list. Wait time has nothing to do with it. ?The story never said how sick he was at the time of transplant.
B. Anyone can donate money to a transplant center. Does this put you higher on the list? Don't think so....not in anyones dreams...Again just implied. The only thing I believe that UCLA did was list a man for transplant and tranplant him when an organ was offered. The man has no insurance so he is considered self pay . The man paid his bill. This is something most insurance companys and patients don't do. I have heard nothing in this story that was complete or accurate. What ever the US goverment(? agency) did to allow the man into this country is something they must answer too. Medical professionals do not judge a persons worth before giving care. I don't think anyone would want them too.
The guy paid $1 million cash.
It doesn't matter if he's a crime boss or not, the guy paid for health care and he received it. He paid more for it than other people, so he got treated first. Denying him treatment because he defied the government 's monopoly on violence and coercion would be to deny him the right to medical care.
Riiiiiiiight!
The dude bought a liver. That's what he did. Our transplant system is not supposed to be open to the highest bidder. He's supposed to get on the waiting list just like the rest of us lower schmucks. And the fact that he's not even a citizen of this country and he's a known criminal and he lied for the privilege makes it all the more disgusting.
It's unjustifiable, period.
It should be.
Our system might not be legally open to the highest bidder, but it certainly would be. If organs were available for sale off the black market, there wouldn't be these long waiting lists.
Why is this surprising?
Liver transplants for gangsters and killers. Vaccinations for terrorists at Gitmo. Americans are quickly moving down on the list of priorities for the American government . Soon we will be dead last if we don't change our ways.