Nobody mentions the financial devastation...

[Ms. Toad]

8. Priority for transplants is based on need, not merit, not when you got in line.

The goal is to get the organ into the person closest to death who is not so sick that giving the organ to would be a waste, taking into account how geographically close to the organ you are.

No reason to be pissed about it. If they are given an organ it means that the assesment is that it gives them a chance to survive (i.e. they aren't already too far gone) AND they needed it more (i.e. they were closer to death) than any other compatible recipient in the right geographical area.

But you are right that many patients die waiting on an organ - but the organ allocation rules are crafted with the goal of maximizing the use of precious resources to save the most lives - not on rewarding those who got in line early, or whose lives might be deemed more worthy, etc.

(My daughter has a rare liver disease. Some of our friends with the same disease have had as many as 5 transplants. So far she is lucky and seems to be in the slow lane, which has its own challlenges. As to this disease (primary sclerosing cholangitis the MELD/PELD scores are bad measures for how close people with this disease are to the end of life - so perhaps a third have to find a living donor to avoid dying because our scores are disproportionately low relative to how damaged the liver is. So I get the frustration. But aside from quirks like that, the problem isn't a flawed allocation system as much as it is too few peope willing to donate their organs.)