ABSTRACT
Organ transplantation has been a favorite topic of health lawyers since its inception. Heart and liver transplants are extreme and expensive interventions that few individuals can afford and few hospitals can offer. In an era of economic scarcity, how should organ transplant procedures and other extreme and expensive treatment be introduced into the health delivery system? The most crucial element is to define "clinical suitability" for transplantation in a manner that concentrates on benefit to the patient in terms of life style and rehabilitation rather than simple survival. The utility of the Task Force Report, its recommendations, and the new Policy Guidelines of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will face their first test when they are used to determine the public need for a four-hospital consortium to do heart transplants in Massachusetts in early 1985.
