Chapter 8: Organ Transplants and Scarce Medical Resources
Case Presentation: Lungs for Sarah Murnaghan is based on “Cystic Fibrosis,” MedlinePlus,
May 14, 2014; “How Cystic Fibrosis Affects the Bones,” eMedicineHealth, June 15, 2011; “Murnaghan
Family to OPTN/UNOS: Stop Age Discrimination!” PR Newswire, May 28, 2013; Marie McCullough, “Girl,
10, Receives Adult Lungs in Phila. Transplant,” Philly.Com, June 14, 2013; Sydney Lupkin, “Girl Recovers
After Lung Transplant,” ABC News, June 12, 2013; Dahlia Coopersmith, “Saving Sarah Murnaghan: The
Ethics Behind Her Life-Saving Procedure,” The Triple Helix Online, January 16, 2015; Jennifer deSante et
al., “Was Sarah Murnaghan Treated Justly?” Pediatrics, June 2, 2014, doi:10.1542/peds.2013-4189; Tom
Tomlinson, “Lungs for Sarah Murnaghan Raise Ethical Questions,” MSU Bioethics, June 27, 2013; “ ‘She’s
Case Presentation: Did Steve Jobs Buy a Liver? is based on Denise Grady and Barry Meier, “A
Transplant That Is Raising Many Questions,” The New York Times, June 22, 2009; Tara Parker-Pope,
“How Did Steve Jobs Get a Liver Transplant?” The New York Times, June 23, 2009; Ray Hainer, “Did
Steve Jobs’ Money Buy Him a Faster Liver Transplant?” CNN, June 24, 2009; and Susan Perry, “Did Steve
Jobs Jump the Liver Transplant Queue?” MinnPost, June 22, 2009.
Information in Social Context: Acquiring and Allocating Transplant Organs is derived from a
range of sources on various topics. On selling organs, see the following New York Times articles: Peter S.
Young, “Moving to Compensate Families in Human Organ Market,” July 8, 1994; Sanjoy Hazarka, “India
Debates Ethics of Buying Transplant Kidneys,” August 17, 1992; Chris Hedges, “Egypt’s Doctors Impose
Kidney Transplant Curbs,” January 23, 1992; and Chris Hedges, “Egypt’s Desperate Trade,” September
22, 1991. The classic sociological study on dialysis and transplants is Renee C. Fox, “A Sociological
Perspective on Organ Transplantation and Hemodialysis,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
169 (1970): 406–428. On defining death, see Stuart J. Youngner, Robert M. Arnold, and Rene Scapiro, The
Definition of Death: Contemporary Controversies (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001); and
Darshak Sanghavi, “Last Decision,” The New York Times Magazine (20 December 2009).
and Ethics Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing, “Position Statement Regarding Convicted
Criminals and Transplant Evaluation,” Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, October 21, 2015.
Case Presentation: The “God Committee”—Distributing Dialysis in Seattle draws on the
classic account of the Swedish Hospital committee in Shana Alexander, “They Decide Who Lives, Who
Dies” Life, November 9, 1962; as well as Sallie Thieme Sanford, “What Scribner Wrought: How the
Invention of Modern Dialysis Shaped Health Law and Policy,” Richmond Journal of Law and Public Interest,
13 (2010): 337. Also see Chris Good, “Sarah Palin Is Back on the Death Panels,” The Atlantic, October 12,
2010; Angie Drobnic Holan, “PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year: ‘Death panels,’” Politifact, December 18th, 2009;
Pamela Warrick, “Questions of Life and Death : Who Lives? Decision by Committee,” The Los Angeles
Case Presentation: Transplants and Disability draws from Ari Ne’eman, Steven Kapp, and
Caroline Narby, “Organ Transplantation and People with I/DD: A Review of Research, Policy and Next
Steps,” Autistic Self Advocacy Network, March 2013; M. A. Martens, L. Jones, and S. Reiss, “Organ
Transplantation, Organ Donation and Mental Retardation,” Pediatr. Transplantation 10 (2006): 658–664; N.
Panocchia, M. Bossola, and G. Vivanti, “Transplantation and Mental Retardation: What Is the Meaning of a
Discrimination?” American Journal of Transplantation 10, no. 4 (2010): 727–730; Jenna Glatzer, “A Genetic
Death Sentence,” Salon, December 8, 2000; and Anatomical Gifts, AB 2861, Senate Health & Human
Services Committee (1996).