Economic, social, racial and age-related considerations in dialysis and transplantation.

Economic, social, racial and age-related considerations in dialysis and transplantation beg the question: how successful are different countries in addressing the problem of distribution of scarce resources, in making 'tragic choices' on who gets treated when not everyone can get what they need? They broach the issues of distributive justice. Whereas the literature mainly addresses these questions in the developed Western world, this review also includes issues that involve the developing world.