Discrimination, autistics, and organ transplants

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People with autism, intellectual disabilities fight bias in transplants

There has always been screening for organs that included how supportive your family/support group is, how much money you have to keep up the medications to stop rejections, do you have the capacity to understand what it takes to keep doing all the things it takes to keep your body from rejecting the organ.

They already don't put kidneys/livers/hearts into people with active substance abuse issues. I forget how many years you have to be "clean" to even be accepted on a trasplant list.

There has always been a finite amount of organs. Of course there is picking and choosing who gets what before you even make the list.

If there is a perfect match for a kidney between two people, who have been on the list on the same amount of time

Person A. Is married with wife, kids, active in his community, owns his own business, is in decent health and practices good life style choices.

Person B. Lives with mother. Unemployed. Never work, but has some college background. On SSI plus Medicaid. Battles with health care providers over treatment plan. Has level I autism. Support system is one parent, no real outside support beside mother.

Who are they are going to give the kidney to?

Usually the disable never make the list because of other comorbids that cancels them out automatically.

I worked in dialysis for a few years. Doctors do pick and chose because they get dinged if the transplant fails.

It should be the co morbids that cancels it out. Autism in and of itself should not be a factor but it is and probably always will be no matter what law is passed.

I have to admit I think discriminating based on mental illness in this situation is justified. I don't think it should be a big part. I think the biggest factor should be health, income, support, life, and importance. I hope that artificial organs become reality.

i never realized organ donation and recieving was so discriminatory.i always thought it was first come first serve on a waiting list

"Discrimination," I feel, is justified for drug abusers and alcoholics. If an alcoholic received a new liver, for example, the liver would become diseased again quite quickly because of the alcoholism.

My brother-in-law was on a transplant list. He was going to receive a new liver. But when he did not do what the transplant team asked him to do, he was taken off the list. He was an alcoholic.

He was admitted to a hospital with his tongue hanging out, unconscious. The tongue never got back inside his mouth. He passed away quite quickly. It was because he was refused a liver because he was irresponsible and an alcoholic.

I have mixed feelings about this.

But to deny a transplant to an autistic person, on the basis of autism alone, is patently ridiculous in my opinion.