According to these transplant surgeons, the current process is hindered by an outdated computer matching program, government oversight, over-reliance by doctors on inconclusive tests, and federal laws prohibiting age discrimination.

A recent computer simulation by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients showed an overhaul of the system could add 10,000 years of life from one year of transplants, the New York Times said.

"There is no doubt that organs that can help somebody and have a survival benefit are being discarded every day," Dr. Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., told the New York Times.

The waitlist for deceased donor kidneys has approximately 93,413 people on it, according to the New York Times.  These patients are divided into 58 districts.  When a kidney becomes available within a given district, it is first offered to the person who has waited the longest.