Medical ethics and the media: the value of a story.

Abstract

Up until June 2014, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) policy dictated that lungs for children under the age of 12 be strictly allocated in the US on a first-come, first-served basis, unlike lungs for adults and children over 12, which are allocated by an algorithm (Lung Allocation Score) that takes into account factors such as disease progression and life expectancy [2]. What began as one mother’s fight to save her child’s life through medical treatment she believed her daughter deserved quickly transformed into a public controversy about organ transplant allocation policies that was widely broadcast to the American public via television, newspapers, and digital media sources.