With two high-profile pediatric transplant cases making headlines recently, many people are paying closer attention to organ donation. Simon Horslen, MB ChB, medical director for liver and intestinal transplantation at Seattle Children’s Hospital, hopes the current debate will be a good boost for organ donation. The real issue, he says, is that there are not enough donors for everyone who needs an organ.
Horslen has cared for transplant patients for years, and he sympathizes with parents who are fighting for their kids to have a chance at life. But he notes that organ donation guidelines exist for a reason.
“It’s right that the families of these kids do everything they can to advocate for their children,” says Horslen. “But it’s a bad precedent if every time someone gets to the bottom of the list or is going to struggle to get transplanted, that they go to the courts to challenge it.” Read full post »