Reply to Should a child with an intellectual disability be denied an organ transplant?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes[/quote]

Whatever asshole.  [/quote]

Why is someone an "asshole" for thinking the mother's account is not entirely accurate.  Did you not read how she described her own mental state during this meeting?

[quote]He says about three more sentences when something sparks in my brain. First it is hazy, foggy, like I am swimming under water. I actually shake my head a little to clear it. And then my brain focuses on what he just said.

I put my hand up. “Stop talking for a minute. Did you just say that Amelia shouldn’t have the transplant done because she is mentally retarded. I am confused. Did you really just say that?”

The tears. Oh, the damn tears. Where did they come from? Niagara Falls. All at once. There was no warning. I couldn’t stop them. There were no tissues in conference room so I use my sleeve and my hands and I keep wiping telling myself to stop it.[/quote]

If we want to have a debate on organ transplant criteria, I think that's healthy.  If this is just an exercise in picking sides based on who we like, I think it is a worthless activity.

If there is anyone to be mad at, it is the public at large.  The reason that transplant committees have to make these choices is because you and I haven't checked our organ donor options on our driver's licenses.  This is a great day to take a look at yours and if you haven't gotten around to it, take your passion and get this corrected.  Or sign up for a registry like this one:  http://marrow.org/Registry_Members/Donation/Donation_FAQs.aspx  There is a 0.2% chance that you will save a person's life.  That's pretty cool.

[b]FWIW I feel that a Down Syndrome patient, who has a shorter but reasonable life expectancy, should be a candidate.  But I think it is very difficult to pass over another patient to give an organ to a girl who has very low odds of seeing her 21st birthday.  Because for every child like this and every upset mother, there is another child and mother in another hospital filling out the same paperwork.  They share the same fears, the same pain, the same hopes and dreams for their future.  And only one of them is going to get that matched kidney.
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Oh, how incredibly benevolent and generous of you that you think someone with Down Syndrome should be allowed a transplant despite their "shorter" life expectancy.  That it is even a question, or that you should even mention you think a person with Down Syndrome should be a candidate illustrates the problem.  What the fuck it goes without saying a person with Down Syndrome should not be denied just because they have an intellectual disability!  What we are talking about here is denying someone life saving treatment because they have a developmental disability, not because their health is too medically fragile to have the surgery.  Maybe that did factor or even make the decision in the case of this little girl.  IF this little girl was denied, and if anyone is denied SIMPLY because they have cognitive delays or are "mentally retarded" that is WRONG and it is EVIL to think otherwise.  Sorry, if you're an organ donor you don't get to chose who gets your organs.  Likewise if you go on the list, you don't get to decide that the person ahead of you isn't as worthy, especially not because they aren't as "smart" as you think people should be to deserve life.  And yes, if a drug addict, or prisoner, or anyone needs a kidney transplant and has a living relative willing to donate to them, I don't see how I'm a part of that decision at all.  For all the 50 something year old obese people getting heart surgery, and on dialysis, and having back surgery etc, etc, yes these needy people should be allocated the "resources" to have their insurance pay for a transplant.

God the world is full of evil minded people.  Don't forget, if you're willing to play this fast and loose with the worthless lives of the disabled...well, eventually someone may find your life worthless too and deny you needed medical care.  
[/quote]

You are so full of venom that you are not even reading what I wrote.  I brought up Down Syndrome to demonstrate that I think it is wrong to deny a candidate based on diminished intellectual capacity.  I am on your side on this part of the discussion and yet you tear me down for it.

OTOH I had a father with renal failure, and I can understand that he was not going to get a kidney because his life expectancy, even with the transplant, was short.  He had other medical conditions.  Had he received a transplant, he would have lived maybe five years max.  It is the same case with this girl.  She has Wolf-Hirschhorn.  Very few of them live.  On top of that her kidneys are failing.

We have to face the fact that life expectancy post-transplant is a valid criterion for a transplant committee.   The mother did not mention anything about the life expectancy of Wolf-Hirschhorn patients.  Ask yourself why.[/quote]

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