Professor and classmates,

The article that I found is about Sarah Murnaghan, a 10 year old girl who was diagnosed at the age of 18 months, is dying from cystic fibrosis. In this article it states that under the current rules lungs from adults are offered to other adults and adolescents before they are offered to children that are younger than 12 years of age. Sarah’s parents challenged that rule, and U.S. Judge Michael Baylson took an unprecedented step by issuing a temporary order requiring the girl to be placed on the adult list for 10 days. The judge’s decision raised many concerns, one of which is how to make an adult lung fit into a child. In the end the judge did not rule in favor of the family.

References

Stein, R. (June 6, 2013) Girl’s Need Breathes Life Into Debate over Organ Allocation Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/10/189270798/Girls-Need-Breathes-Life-Into-Debate-Over-Organ-Allocation

1. What facts are presented about the case? That she is a 10 year old that is dying from cystic fibrosis, currently under the laws children under 12 cannot receive an adult lung.

2. What ethical issues do you see in this case? That just because the patient is a child that they can’t receive adult organs, they aren’t even put on the adult recipient list. The judge gave permission for a little boy to be put on the list but would not keep Sarah on there longer than 10 days.

3. What values affect this case? (e.g., should certain people be more eligible for organs than others?) The values that affect this case is that special consideration is given for one child over the other and that children shouldn’t be put on the adult recipient list. I think that patients that will get the most benefit from the transplant should be the one to receive it no matter the