News
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gets liver transplant in Tennessee; columnist questions fairness of access to US health care
By Arthur Caplan, PhD
MSNBC.com
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ recent trip to Tennessee to pick himself up a new liver has raised some sticky questions about what money can buy. Jobs, 54, was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer five years ago and had a piece of his pancreas removed. The prognosis with tumors of the pancreas is not good; the cancer can spread to the liver.
First, let me say I wish Jobs the best. This column is being typed on an Apple computer, while an iPod is playing and an iPhone is displaying missed messages on its screen. You would be hard-pressed to find a stronger Apple devotee and Steve Jobs admirer than I am.
But the news that this incredibly wealthy resident of Silicon Valley, California, had transplant surgery thousands of miles from his home at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, (two months ago, according to the Wall Street Journal) raises some important questions about access to health care at a time when America is in the midst of a major battle over health reform.
