CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013 OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013 OR THEREAFTER
“ILLEGAL
IMMIGRANT MYTHS EXTEND TO ORGAN TRANSPLANTS”
The unproven, unprovable but
persistent myth that undocumented immigrants are a vast financial burden on the
American taxpayer is now extending to the unlikely field of organ transplants.
The latest furor began when about 40
persons, many undocumented, picketed a Chicago hospital in late summer
demanding the government finance organ transplants for illegal immigrants, as
it often does for others. Some were on a hunger strike, promising to persist on
water and Gatorade until they are placed on the waiting list for organs like
kidneys and livers.
So far, this demonstration has not
been duplicated in California. But the issue of transplants for the
undocumented arrived here early last year with the case of Jesus Navarro, who
did not receive a kidney transplant set to go to him because at the last
moment, doctors at the University of California’s San Francisco Medical Center
learned his immigration status.
Navarro eventually got a transplant,
but it was not paid for with government funds. That didn’t remove all the
controversy, though.
“Why should an American citizen lose out
on a transplant to someone in the country illegally?” asked the conservative
blog Natural News, speaking for many.
One response might be that contrary to
urban legend, undocumented immigrants donate a lot more organs for transplant
than they will ever use as long as they can’t legally enter programs like
Medicare (which covers all eligible patients in kidney failure starting shortly
after they begin dialysis treatments) and Medi-Cal, the California form of
Medicaid.
Asked the other day what the effect on
organ donation might be if it became widely known that unauthorized immigrants
can be wait-listed for organs and eventually receive them if financially
qualified, the head of California’s largest organ procurement organization took
a different tack.
“I worry far more about any group
saying ‘If we can’t get transplants, why should we ever donate,’” said Thomas
Mone, chief executive of Los Angeles-based OneLegacy, which arranges
distribution of organs donated by the families of accident victims and others
who die, but have reusable hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs, corneas and other
tissues.
“We certainly don’t ask any
prospective donors their immigration status when we’re asking them to donate,”
he said. “It’s not pertinent medically and it could scare them off quickly. But
we know about 10 percent of the population here is undocumented. And we know
about 51 percent of our donors are Latino. So we estimate that about 50 of our
approximately 450 donated organs each year come from the undocumented. We know
for sure that 65 percent of Latino families who are asked to donate the organs
of a deceased relative actually do it.”
So the undocumented almost certainly
account for well over 10 percent of donations. Meanwhile, an American Medical
Assn. report found that over the 20 years from 1988 to 2007, non-resident
aliens (including illegal immigrants) received far less than 1 percent of all
transplants nationally
(http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2008/04/msoc1-0804.html).
Mone estimates that less than one percent
of transplants here go to non-resident aliens.” So illegal immigrants give far
more than they’ve ever received. Who’s a burden on whom?
Financial
questions have long affected prospective organ recipients, along with health
tests and a psychiatric exam aiming to establish they would likely observe the
drug regimen needed to keep a transplant going. “The financial test is the most
significant hurdle for undocumented immigrants to be listed for transplant,”
Mone reported.
Yes,
Medi-Cal allows coverage for some U.S.-born children of unauthorized residents,
but how would most of their families pay the large monthly cost of drugs needed
to keep transplants going?
Jesus Navarro got his transplant last
year only after a cash donor stepped forward. It could be argued that as
someone who lived in this country 16 years prior to his kidneys failing, 14
working for a Berkeley steel foundry, he had contributed enough to society to
merit government insurance coverage. But it didn’t work that way for him.
The bottom line: As in other areas,
the contributions of the undocumented in the transplant realm generally go
unnoticed. Which doesn’t make them any less real, especially if you happen to
need one of their organs in this era of long waits and big shortfalls.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, go to www.californiafocus.net. He has had a kidney transplant since 1997.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, go to www.californiafocus.net. He has had a kidney transplant since 1997.
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