Articles Posted in medical law

In Pennsylvania a 10 year old girl is bravely facing a situation that most adults would not be able to handle with such strength and hope. The girl is dying of cystic fibrosis and needs new lungs in order to survive.

Her situation has been growing more desperate and has achieved national attention. Support for the girl’s situation has come from the public after the national media made the situation well known across the country. Judge Michael Baylson, a Federal Court Judge, passed a temporary decision allowing Sarah to be placed on the adult transplant list, which she was previously not allowed to be on according to the “Under 12 rule” which does not allow children under the age of 12 to be on the adult transplant list.

According to medical experts, lung transplants are the hardest transplants to perform, and giving adult lungs to children is even more difficult to do successfully. If the policy is changed there would be approximately 8-11 children added to the list of already over 1500 people waiting for lung transplants. Many are saying that it should not be up to a judge to decide what to do with transplant organs, especially when the decision goes against what the doctors say.