organs.eBay.com (UPDATED AGAIN)

St. Luke's (Denver) ethics committee tried to stop the transplant of a kidney from one man, who paid $290 to post his profile on the Internet at a new website called MatchingDonors.com, to another. In a "compassionate exception" the hospital decided that this was an appropriate thing to do just this once, before they debate things. Precedent doesn't seem to be an issue for them. And the CEO of the hospital took great pains to say that it is not endorsing the website. Mr. Smitty, the donor, was to be paid $5,000 for his kidney ... I mean ... for his travel expenses. UPDATE: After innumerable stories reported on the phenomenon, hospital officials decided to cancel the transplant. Interestingly, George Annas uses the case as a (brilliant) opportunity to demonstrate that we would not have problems like this if organ procurement were both a higher priority and better executed. UPDATE2: Rocky Mountain News' piece is just out and interesting. Art Caplan is interviewed on it at Medscape. UPDATE3: A shakedown for life? UPDATE4: USA Today begins the spinning of the implications of the matchingdonors saga.