[Edward64]

Just an update.

Did Steve Jobs' money buy him a faster liver transplant? - CNN.com

Livers are a scarce resource. In any given year, only about one-third of the people on the national transplant waiting list receive one, and as of late June, more than 16,000 people were on the list.

Yet it sometimes seems that celebrities in need end up at the front of the line when they need a transplants, and people often assume they get preferential treatment. (Rumors about special treatment circulated after baseball player Mickey Mantle's liver transplant in 1995, for example.) Health.com: The real gift of life: How medical donations help

The truth is more complicated. No one can actually buy an organ in the United States (legally, that is). But getting a liver transplant, it turns out, is a lot like getting into college. Once you're on the waiting list, your chances of getting off it depend largely on your personal circumstances -- how sick you are and whether you are a good donor match. But getting on the list in the first place -- or on more than one list, as the case may be -- requires resources and know-how that most people don't have.