please sign this petition!

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https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... n/RX53VWvF

from the site:

we petition the obama administration to:
PLEASE STOP our healthcare system from denying people with autism organ transplants and their basic human right to life.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, health care providers are barred from discriminating against patients based on disability.

Denying a person the right to life, by denying a life saving organ transplant, based solely on a diagnosis of autism is clearly a major civil liberties and human rights issue.

These choices are not made based on the health of the person. They are made based on a subjective decision about what they believe about quality of life.

Many of the denied patients are children showing great aptitudes of intelligence that have the use of alternative communications, are able to make choices, and feel love. These children are being discriminated against with a decision that is grounded in no medical justification for refusal

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please we need at least 25,000 signatures by December 14, in order for the government to look at the petition and issue an official response

as of now we only have around 1,850. please sign this petition.

I'm curious. When did they decide to deny this to us and why and can I see the link of the website where the article is written? My family is going to flip when they hear about this.

Ravenclawgurl,

The expressed or implied claim of the petition is that our healthcare system denies people with autism organ transplants and the basic human right to life.

Please provide valid empirical evidence to support this claim -- something other than the hysterical ramblings of a paranoid conspiracy theorist.

Thank you,

Fnord

There was a recent instance in which someone diagnosed with PDD-NOS (did I get that right?) was denied a heart transplant for that and other reasons.

I don't recollect hearing of any other cases, though.

I found this with a quick web search. From http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/young-man-denied-heart-transplant-because-autism-153900949.html:

• The Perelman School of Medicine
  
• The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
  
• The Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
  
• The Pennsylvania Hospital
  
• The Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
  
• Penn Medicine Rittenhouse

Obamacare is not going to approve procedures right and left.

That said, I would like to know there exact reasoning as to why he was denied.

I hate to say this but I kind of understand the doctor's rationale. Not saying it is right nor not. Remember, this is third hand account. This is written based upon what the family told this author about what the doctor said. We don't have the doctor's side or her point of view on this. IMHO, I think more facts need to be collected first before we start throwing stones.

Let's say he does receive this transplant. The article did say this patient had anger problems. I'm not an expert on human biology so I may be wrong. When a stressor appears I do believe the heart starts pumping faster and the lungs take in more oxygen. This is to prepare for fight or flight.

The transplanted heart will be in a weakened condition. Let's say this patient goes into fight or flight mode how vulnerable will this heart be? Maybe the risks of this transplant outweigh the status quo. She may have gone through the data and this was her decision based upon the facts. I don't know. We would have to have something from the doctor herself.

With respect to the doctor's coldness, she has to keep her emotional distance from the patient. She can't become emotionally attached to the patient. She has to remain objective in order to make sound decisions for the health of the patient.

With respect to Obama, what can he do? The presidency has only certain defined functions. One of them is to execute the laws. He could try to convince congress to pass laws. Ultmately, if the government is the way to go then they should appeal to congress not obama.

If it were me, I would try to talk to the doc to try to understand her rationale.

Another issue that I see that could crop up is the issue of a lawsuit if something goes wrong during the operation and after.

bump

its more than one case though

UNTIL THE 1990’s, “mental retardation”, meaning any sort of cognitive impairment, was considered “contraindication” for receiving a livesaving organ transplant
http://nisonger.osu.edu/papers/LWSarticle.pdf

Mental retardation is the term used in the document but it also pertains to those with autism

and the term “Contraindicated.” That quite literally means that they considered saving the life person with a cognitive disability HARMFUL.


and for current cases
Case 1: https://www.facebook.com/savesunshine he is Autistic, did eventually get a hospital willing to do the transplant from a family member after the original hospital wouldn’t even accept a relatives kidney.

Case 2: https://www.facebook.com/LifeForLief he is Autistic, was origannlly denied a transplant at multiple hospitals finally is now on the transplant list awaiting a new heart


additional information for this post was taken from a mass post going around tumblr http://allisticntprivilege.tumblr.com/p ... transplant

Even if its not under obamacare, the government could look into "developmental disabilities, including autism, are on their own not a reason for not getting an organ transplant".

While it won't help these current individuals, contacting government officials is a way to make changes in the longer term, and the Obama administration, did put up a way to send them petitions in a way to contact them, so its a way to contact government official.

bump



we only have a few more days

[Moved from Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation to General Autism Discussion on OP's request]