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Fairness, severe intellectual disability, and the special case of transplantation
Author(s) -
Wightman Aaron,
Goldberg Aviva,
Diekema Douglas
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
pediatric transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.457
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1399-3046
pISSN - 1397-3142
DOI - 10.1111/petr.13228
Subject(s) - medicine , intellectual disability , transplantation , value (mathematics) , population , economic justice , pediatrics , intensive care medicine , psychiatry , surgery , law , environmental health , machine learning , computer science , political science
Children with severe intellectual disability have historically been excluded from solid organ transplantation. The purpose of this article was to review the arguments for excluding this population, including claims of poorer recipient and graft survival, a lower QoL as pediatric recipients become adults, and poorer outcomes for other, more deserving pediatric transplant candidates, and make the case that these arguments are no longer persuasive. We will argue that pediatric transplant centers for reasons of social justice, value of relationships, power differential, and fairness should generally not consider intellectual ability or disability as a criterion when making decisions regarding organ transplant eligibility.