The New England Patriots’ star quarterback, Tom Brady, has lent his celebrity to his childhood mentor, Tom Martinez, to try to save his life. Mr. Martinez has end-stage kidney disease and desperately needs a transplant.
Mr. Brady, who is playing in this weekend’s Super Bowl, posted a picture of himself with his coach on Facebook with a link to a non-profit website that matches people in need of transplants with altruistic living donors.
Since Mr. Brady’s posting, as many as 60 people have gone on matchingdonors.com, offering to donate a kidney to Mr. Martinez, though so far, none have the compatible blood and tissue types.
Mr. Brady’s example of friendship to his old coach, and efforts to heighten awareness of organ donation, are doubtless well-intentioned. But he should consider using his celebrity to help all those on transplant waitlists, and not just Mr. Martinez. Online matching websites where organ donors “choose” recipients leave both donors and recipients open to exploitation. The website in question functions in the same manner as a dating site, allowing donors and patients to approach one another, based on the information posted. Patients are charged a one-time fee of $595 to register while donors are free.
“Such sites have the potential to turn into ‘beauty contests’ where patients in need are evaluated on the basis of their personal appearance and biography, variables which should have no relevance in organ allocation,” says a recent article in the American Journal of Transplantation. Those with the “best story” shouldn’t “win” a kidney, just as donors shouldn’t be motivated by the possibility of access to a celebrity, or even free Super Bowl tickets (it is against the law to be paid for an organ). As Vancouver nephrologist Dr. John Gill puts it: “People should not meet over an organ.”
Instead, Mr. Martinez could consider enrolling in a living donor paired exchange program. Such programs, which are anonymous, allow patients with donors who are incompatible to give to someone else who has registered. In exchange, their intended recipient is matched with another donor in the registry. Canada’s living donor paired exchange has completed more than 100 living-donor kidney transplants since it launched two years ago.
This model helps protect against the commodification of human body parts – and ensures that the allocation of organs doesn’t turn into a popularity contest.
