Over the past decade, the disparity between organ demand and availability has grown from 5,000 to 50,000. Recent developments have made new, life-saving procedures possible. UNOS' organ distribution policies have been a bone of political contention for the past few years.
Some states have a history of sufficient donor levels to meet, or almost meet, in-state demand.
Other states regularly experience demands for organs that far exceed traditional state donor levels. The underlying problem is the shortage of cadaveric donors. For example, the number of living donors rose from 4,747 in 1999 to 5,532 in 2000, an increase of 16.5 percent, the largest one-year jump ever recorded. Donors from cadavers rose from 5,825 in 1999 to 5,984 in 2000, an increase of 2.7 percent. According to individual transplant centers, about 10 percent of the prospective donors that drop out are disqualified for psychological or social reasons.