What's the matter with liver transplants? Nothing -- if you're Steve Jobs

By now, we all know that Apple (AAPL) founder Steve Jobs underwent a liver transplant in April. Following reports of his increasingly gaunt appearance and sudden retirement from Apple, The Wall Street Journal on Saturday solved a mystery that's been brewing for months, if not years. Jobs's surgery is good news, of course, but it raises major concerns about the way the business of organ transplants is conducted in America.

After his bout with pancreatic cancer, Jobs has been notoriously tight-lipped about his health, so it's difficult to know how long he's been waiting for a transplant, or the extent to which his liver has been damaged. But liver-transplant candidates routinely wait years to get a working organ. Many die waiting.