The University of California at San Francisco has begun offering transplant organs to people with the human immunodeficiency virus who are dying from other diseases.
The San Francisco Examiner has reported that, to be considered for a transplant, the HIV must be under control, and HIV-infected patients will receive organs that otherwise would have been turned down.
Like other HIV-related issues, the decision is not without controversy. While at least one university official has said that patients with HIV must be evaluated like all other patients who need transplants, others at the University of California believe that giving an organ to a person with the deadly virus wastes an organ that could have gone to a patient with a potentially longer life.
The debate also has spread beyond the confines of the university. According to CNN, AIDS activist Jeff Getty has said that it is "outright discrimination" to deny a transplant to a patient with HIV. Getty achieved national attention last year when he received a baboon bone marrow transplant.
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