In a front-page article, the Washington Post (3/4, A1, Bernstein) reports the rights of those suffering from mental disabilities to receive transplants is “emerging [as an] ethical issue” in medicine. Currently, physicians, “nurses, psychologists and social workers at 815 US transplant programs are free to take neurocognitive disabilities such as autism into consideration any way they want,” which the Post says has led to a wide range of variation across these programs.
A spokesperson for Health and Human Services said in a statement that the department has been working “to clarify the obligations of covered entities participating in the transplant process and to provide equal access to their programs to individuals with disabilities.”
Related Links:
— “People with autism, intellectual disabilities fight bias in transplants,” Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post, March 4, 2017.