By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--June 6, 2013
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Janet Murnaghan, Sarah's mother, said the family is "thrilled ... literally jumping for joy." In a written statement, the family added, "We are experiencing many emotions -- relief, happiness, gratitude and, for the first time in months, hope." Where someone is placed on the adult lung transplant list depends on several factors -- blood type, distance from donor to potential recipient, and a lung allocation score. The score is derived from medical factors like test results and the patient's diagnosis. Sarah's parents said her score is a 78. Anything above 60 is considered a high score, according to reports published on the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network website. The Murnaghans had argued that since the number of children's lungs available through organ donation programs is so small, Sarah -- and other pediatric patients like her -- should be added to the list of people waiting for adult lungs, prioritized by severity of their illnesses.Now let's be clear about exactly what happened here. A policy was put in place by the federal government that said certain people would take priority over others for transplants. When a person proved to be in desperate need of such a transplant - a matter of life and death - a cabinet-level government official refused to intervene, citing the rules, citing limits on her own authority and saying it would take too long at any rate to change the policy. Lungs are available. A 10-year-old girl needs one or she will die. But a government policy says she can't have one and no one will do anything to set aside or get around the policy so a 10-year-old girl will not die. Or at least no one would until Judge Baylson came along, thank God. This is the death panel. It is exactly what Palin was talking about. It is not a group of hooded men sitting atop a raised dais, informing unfortunate souls, "You have been selected for death," but it has the exact same effect. The government makes rules to govern the allocation of resources in health care, and the rules leave no room for flexibility when a person's life is on the line and common sense argues that flexibility is absolutely necessary. Only the intervention of this judge, assuming it is allowed to stand, can save this young girl's life - because government has no idea how to stop tripping over its own policies. By the way, about Sebelius's claim that she couldn't act because she lacks the authority. Two things about that: 1. She doesn't have the authority to shake down the health care industry for money to pay for ObamaCare implementation either, but that's not stopping her. 2. People who believe it is important to make something happen find a way. They make phone calls. They knock on doors. They call in favors. They get done what needs to get done. People who don't really want to help claim they don't have the authority and leave it at that. We know what Kathleen Sebelius's priorities are. What a despicable woman. Oh, by the way, I don't remember her boss issuing any directive to find a way to help either. Palin has been right about a lot of things.
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