On the List

Two families came together in the waiting room of a Denver hospital on May 11, 2004, to await kidney transplants for loved ones. In the first operation, Gregg Farber, 32, a real estate executive, donated a kidney to his father, Steve, a 60-year-old Denver lawyer and power broker. In the second, Guatemalan refugee and landscaper Ernesto Delaroca, also 32, donated a kidney to his sister Sandra, 19, a restaurant worker.

The stories of how the Farber and Delaroca families made their separate journeys to the operating room offers insight into the hazards and inequities of a cobbled-together system that each year leaves more than 98,000 gravely ill Americans on the waiting list for a life-saving transplant. Steve Farber's experience inspired him to write On the List with Harlan Abrahams. They examine the ethical, legal, political, and economic debates over organ transplant policies, expose the gray market for transplants in Third World countries, and propose solutions to one of the world's most pressing health issues.

An informative and inspiring guide to those who face transplant operations, the book is also a call to reform a system that is truly, and fatally, flawed.