True, this being the biggest problem with anything that happens on large computerised databases. However the example of the Spanish system seems to have a lot going for it, they theoretically have the "Opt out" system, but they still ask the relatives and only if the relatives are trully in agreement do they go ahead. The Spanish with what appears to be amazing forsight have put in place more transplant co-ordinators, made available more beds and trained and employ more transplant surgeons and nursing staff, so that they are able to utilise every organ that becomes available with the consentof the nearest and dearest of the donors. The Spanish waiting lists are astonishingly low.

In the UK even if we had the transplant co-ordniators in place to talk to relatives of all potential donors, we do not have the surgeons nor the facilities, beds and nurses to cope, so here in the UK we will have to go on letting people die while they are on the waiting lists, and others will get too ill while on the waiting list to ever benefit from a transplant, these people are taken off the list, for instance you come of the list for six months if you become so anaemic and need to be given a blood transfusion. Even young people die or their outlook becomes more and more dim, as things secondary to their failing or failed organs start to make themselves felt.

Maybe we just expect too much from our health service I do not claim to know any of the answers, all I know is that when my daughters transplant failed we were given so much hope, she was young she was still in relatively good health, even though her bones were crumbling and her joints were painful from the many years of steroids to help keep rejection at bay. But now 4 years on there is little chance that she will ever go back on the transplant list, because she has probably gone past the stage where a transplant would ever be considered.

So what hope all those young productive people who may need a transplant, there are many people on dialysis who still work, and try to have some sort of normal life, but from my observations these are few, and from my observation its watching people getting so ill on dialysis. Yet every now and then you see the miracle, when some one you know gets the call that there is a kidney available, and then you see them a few months down the line and see how they have changed, and how grateful the recipients are. Its a pity that so many organs go to waste, and I am not talking about those who really did not want to give, but people whos names are on the register, and people who carry a donor card, but because there is no transplant co-ordinator around, or there is no surgeon available, that gift is not taken up.

I am still fairly ambivalent about the whole issue of transplantation, there always seems so many things to get upset about within the health service. You might think that because of my history I would be totally in favour but seriously I am not even sure if it is the best use of scarce resources, but its cheaper than some one being on haemodialysis.