SPOTLIGHT: Doctors debate propriety of public pleas for donor organs

When patients fear that they'll die without one, it's no surprise that they're willing to go public with pleas for donor organs--and the practice is getting increasingly mainstream. In fact, at least one site (matchingdonors.com) has helped arrange a transplant between a donor and recipient who met through the site. However, some physicians contend that such efforts are a method of unfairly jumping ahead of the organ donor waiting list. Others say that living donors have every right to direct their donations (as in the case of a kidney). The debate seems likely to rage for some time, observers say. Article