How would you feel if the organs you'd donated from your dying child wound up killing another child because of a clerical mix-up? An investigation into the aftermath of the Jesica Santillan story
“We cannot ignore the tough public-policy questions in Jesica’s case that the sob-story writers at The New York Times prefer to paper over: When resources are as scarce as the supply of voluntarily donated organs notoriously are, why shouldn’t U.S. citizens get top priority? If Jesica recovers from the second heart-lung transplant, will any federal immigration authority have the guts to enforce the law and send her and her family home?”
The United States is a rich and powerful country, but not to an unlimited extent. I would argue that America cannot be the world's policeman for precisely that reason. Isn't the flip side of that argument that the US can't be the world's hospital either?
When the fundamental issue is accounting how can it be xenophobic to address the question of costs?
The layers of suffering here are immense. The process of illegally immigrating, the failure of the Duke medical system, the unsettling relationship between Mack/Nita and Jesica's family... The family needed an advocate, but it seems this relationship was off. I never really grasped what their true motivations were. I got goosebumps reading about your visit and your interactions. It's just mind blowing that this happened. How was there such a breakdown between UNOS and Dr. Jaggers regarding blood type?? I have to take myself back to 2003 and remind myself that quality assurance was probably less automatic/tech-centered. This is just unbelievable heavy shit.
First, I loved the article. But...
“We cannot ignore the tough public-policy questions in Jesica’s case that the sob-story writers at The New York Times prefer to paper over: When resources are as scarce as the supply of voluntarily donated organs notoriously are, why shouldn’t U.S. citizens get top priority? If Jesica recovers from the second heart-lung transplant, will any federal immigration authority have the guts to enforce the law and send her and her family home?”
The United States is a rich and powerful country, but not to an unlimited extent. I would argue that America cannot be the world's policeman for precisely that reason. Isn't the flip side of that argument that the US can't be the world's hospital either?
When the fundamental issue is accounting how can it be xenophobic to address the question of costs?
The layers of suffering here are immense. The process of illegally immigrating, the failure of the Duke medical system, the unsettling relationship between Mack/Nita and Jesica's family... The family needed an advocate, but it seems this relationship was off. I never really grasped what their true motivations were. I got goosebumps reading about your visit and your interactions. It's just mind blowing that this happened. How was there such a breakdown between UNOS and Dr. Jaggers regarding blood type?? I have to take myself back to 2003 and remind myself that quality assurance was probably less automatic/tech-centered. This is just unbelievable heavy shit.
Huh? Is this about a tragic and preventable accident or a journalist’s angst? I need a TLDR!