Public plea spurs new liver, and debate over technique

UNOS is exploring the ethical issues related to public solicitation for organs.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Sept. 6, 2004.

A billboard advertising a Houston man's desperate need for a liver helped save his life but raised ethical questions regarding the allocation of donated organs.

Thanks to billboard and Internet advertising and the media coverage his campaign received, Todd Krampitz, 32, has a new liver. The attention helped shine more light on the shortage of available organs, but some transplant experts wonder whether a new standard was set by the use of advertising and the media to get a specific organ for a specific person. They also question whether the practice of "directed donation," where one gets to choose who will receive a deceased family member's organs, unfairly bypasses a system designed to distribute organs to the patients who need them the most.

Catherine Burch Graham, director of communications for the Houston-based LifeGift Organ Donation Center, said the liver came from an out-of-state donor whose family requested that it be given to Krampitz.

"Interestingly, it wasn't the billboard itself that got him the organ, it was the media coverage of the billboard," Graham said.

Annie Moore, spokeswoman for the United Network for Organ Sharing, said although directed cadaveric donations are allowed by federal law, only "a handful" take place each year. Moore said UNOS had previously decided it was time to study public solicitation.

"At the June board meeting, [members] did acknowledge that it's an emerging issue, and a special committee was formed to make recommendations on that topic," she said.