[TheNumber42]

Originally Posted by The Man And XX Master

It is very tragic the young girl is suffering from Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, however, there is more to why she was denied a kidney transplant than mental retardation. WHS frequently involves "grand-mal" seizures that are quite difficult to treat with pharmaceutical intervention. In addition, the immune system quite weakened, congential heart disease, physical malformations and neurological abnormalities that can result in a wide variety of impairments from mental retardation to death. I don't know why the parents are focusing exclusively on mental retardation when it's clear that the doctor stated, "... quality of life and mental retardation". Later in the article, the parents become very defensive about the doctor commenting on their daughter's quality of life as though it were an insult when in fact it is not.

Due to the daughter's genetic disorder, she will need more resources in the future, such as heart transplant. Unfortunately, studies indicate individuals with this genetic disorder do not have a long life expectancy and given her mental retardation, immunosuppressant medication (for organ transplant), I question how much she can learn from the world. She's going to need more resources and child organs are in short supply. For example, according to an epidemiological study by Shannon, Maltby, Rigby and Quarrell (2001), there is a high morality rate in the first 2 years of life. The girl is three years old, so although she has overcome the 2 year mark, there are very few who survive past 10 years old let alone 20 years old. I understand the doctor's decision and support it because the child will need additional resources that are not in abundance.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...v038p00674.pdf

Pretty much this.