Facebook Inc. took a momentous action last week. And I don’t mean its announced intention to sell shares for $28 to $35 in an initial public offering later this month.

Informed, willing and healthy prisoners should not be deprived of the opportunity to help the sick while improving their own prospects once they are free.

Altruism is simply not enough to satisfy the global organ shortage that has spawned illegal and unregulated organ markets, so government-sponsored compensation of healthy of individuals who are willing to give one of their kidneys is the best short-term solution.

As ingenious, painstaking and justifiably attention-getting as domino swaps are, they should not blot out the dismal news that rates of kidney donation, from both living and deceased donors, fall woefully short of the need.

Should criminals have equal access to scarce medical treatments?

Congress must permit donors to accept third-party benefits for saving the life of a stranger, otherwise desperate patients and donors will continue to be reluctant co-conspirators in crime.

Triage on the economic front is Job One for the incoming Obama administration and the 111th Congress. Maybe it is Job Two and Job Three as well.

The organ transplant list is approaching 100,000 patients, but the waitlist doesn't reflect the full scope of the problem.