Death Panels – Sarah Palin slams HHS Sebelius for not intervening in lung transplant for young girl

Via Sarah Palin:

The government will bend the rules left and right to harass targeted taxpayers, conservative patriots, selected journalists, etc., but it will strictly exercise inconsistent and subjective rules to deny a child a shot at life. And they called us liars when we spoke of “death panels” – faceless bureaucrats coming between you and your doctor to make life and death decisions about a loved one’s survival. It doesn’t sound so far fetched anymore, does it?

Here’s the article Palin linked to called Sebelius won’t intervene in girl’s transplant case:

The U.S. health secretary said she won’t intervene in an “incredibly agonizing” transplant decision about a dying Pennsylvania girl, noting that three other children in the same hospital are just as sick.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a congressional panel Tuesday that medical experts should make those decisions.

However, relatives of 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan said Sebelius’ remarks confused them because they want a policy change for all pre-adolescent children awaiting lung transplants, not just Sarah.

The Newtown Square girl has been hospitalized at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for three months with end-stage cystic fibrosis and is on a ventilator. Her family wants children younger than 12 to be eligible for adult lungs because so few pediatric lungs are available.

Under current policy, only patients 12 and over can join the list. But Sarah’s transplant doctors say she is medically eligible for an adult lung.

The change would add perhaps 20 children from ages 8 to 11 to the adult waiting list, which has more than 1,600 people on it, according to Sharon Ruddock, Sarah’s aunt.

“One moment they say we’re asking for an exception for Sarah. The next moment they say we’re asking for sweeping changes and it has to be studied,” Ruddock said Tuesday.

Sebelius has called for a review of pediatric transplant policies, but the Murnaghans say Sarah doesn’t have time for that.

“I’m begging you. … She has three to five weeks to live. Please suspend the rules,” Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., urged Sebelius at a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on her department’s budget.

Sebelius conceded the case was an “incredibly agonizing situation” but said many complex factors go into the transplant-list formula.

Politico adds this:

“I’m begging you,” Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) told Sebelius at a House hearing Tuesday morning, asking her to suspend the transplant rules until they can be revisited. “Sarah has three to five weeks to live. Time is running out.” The child has cystic fibrosis.

At the hearing, Sebelius called the situation “agonizing” and said she had talked to the girl’s mother. She has ordered a review of the policy, which she acknowledged would take too long to have any impact on this girl’s situation, but said it wasn’t her place to pick and choose transplant recipients.

“I can’t imagine anything worse than one individual getting to pick who lives and who dies,” she said. Sebelius said putting Sarah next in line would disadvantage other young people who have also been waiting for transplants — including three in the same area. Helping one child could possibly hurt another.

Some experts agree that the lung allocation policy may need to be revisited; it has been for kidney and liver transplants. But they say no snap decisions should be made because of the media glare.

Politico goes into more detail about the policy itself if you want to keep reading it.


Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges.