(CNSNews.com) - The nation's organ-transplant network may give younger, healthier people preference over older, sicker patients for the best kidneys, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. Instead of giving priority to patients who have been on the waiting list longest, the new rules would match recipients and organs based on factors such as age and health -- an attempt to maximize the number of years provided by each kidney, the newspaper reported.

"We're trying to best utilize the gift of the donated organ," the Post quoted Kenneth Andreoni, an associate professor of surgery at Ohio State University, as saying. Andreoni chairs the committee that is reviewing possible changes for the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a private nonprofit group contracted by the federal government to coordinate organ allocation. "It's an effort to get the most out of a scarce resource."

Some bioethicists call it age discrimination.

According to one bioethicist, if the changes are adopted, they could have implications for other decisions about how to allocate scarce medical resources, such as expensive cancer drugs and ventilators during hurricanes and other emergencies.

Read Newspaper Roundup and see Washington Post report