Chicago ? If someone needs a kidney transplant today, it doesn’t matter if she’s 25 or 60 years old. What counts is how long she’s spent waiting for a suitable organ to become available.

That would change under a controversial new proposal by the nation’s organ transplant network unveiled Thursday in Dallas. The plan would give kidneys to patients who would live longest after a transplant, not those who have languished longest on waiting lists.

The goal is to make sure organs go to patients who can get the most benefit from a kidney transplant, extending more lives. But experts worry that older patients would be far less likely to get transplants if the plan is adopted.

The change would apply only to kidneys from deceased donors.