Ethicists weigh in on pediatric lung transplant case
USA News Today | Nanci Hellmich
Deciding who gets transplants is a complex medical issue that should be decided by transplant experts, not the courts or members of Congress, experts say.
There are almost 1,700 people in this country on the waiting list for a lung transplant, including 31 children under age 11, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. But none captured the public's attention like the case of Sarah Murnaghan, age 10, who suffers from end-stage cystic fibrosis.
Her prospects looked poor because organ transplant rules don't allow adult lungs to go to children under 12. But on Wednesday night a judge ordered the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to add her to the list for adult lungs. So she's now on that list as well as a priority list for organs from a pediatric donor. The ruling only applies to Sarah who is at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Many more adult lungs than children's lungs are donated. Matches are based on blood type, the risk of dying, the chance of surviving a transplant and other medical factors. The donor lungs would also have to be an appropriate size for her chest.
Did the court do the right thing?
USA TODAY talked about the medical and ethical issues involved in this case with Art Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, and Jonathan Moreno, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Q: Do you think judges should be involved in this kind of case?
Caplan: "The best place to make medical decisions is not in a courtroom, it's not in Congress, it's not on television. It's with doctors and people with expertise in transplants making the decision based on how well the transplant will work and who is likely to live. Those aren't facts that judges, senators or bureaucrats have.
There are almost 1,700 people in this country on the waiting list for a lung transplant, including 31 children under age 11, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. But none captured the public's attention like the case of Sarah Murnaghan, age 10, who suffers from end-stage cystic fibrosis.
Her prospects looked poor because organ transplant rules don't allow adult lungs to go to children under 12. But on Wednesday night a judge ordered the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to add her to the list for adult lungs. So she's now on that list as well as a priority list for organs from a pediatric donor. The ruling only applies to Sarah who is at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Many more adult lungs than children's lungs are donated. Matches are based on blood type, the risk of dying, the chance of surviving a transplant and other medical factors. The donor lungs would also have to be an appropriate size for her chest.
Did the court do the right thing?
USA TODAY talked about the medical and ethical issues involved in this case with Art Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, and Jonathan Moreno, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Q: Do you think judges should be involved in this kind of case?
Caplan: "The best place to make medical decisions is not in a courtroom, it's not in Congress, it's not on television. It's with doctors and people with expertise in transplants making the decision based on how well the transplant will work and who is likely to live. Those aren't facts that judges, senators or bureaucrats have.
______________________________________________________
"You have the power to SAVE lives."
To register as a donor in California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net
Comments
Post a Comment