Social Support Is Not the Only Problematic Criterion, But If Used at All, “Lack of Social Support” Should Count in Favor of Listing, Not Against

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This article refers to:

Should Lack of Social Support Prevent Access to Organ Transplantation?

Notes

1. Statistical evidence related to the patient’s transplant related illness is an exception, because the job of the physician is to evaluate the individual health of the patient, and the physician is an expert. But this physician is typically not doing the same type of evaluation on the patient’s psychosocial conditions, or financial condition, or many others. Hence, the patient might very well have relevant information that medical personal lack.

2. For discussions related to the fair innings principle, see Daniels (1995, 2001).

3. I would also argue that this criterion should be excluded in other areas, for similar reasons. In my paper “Transgender Children and the Right to Transition” (Priest 2019) I argued that children should be able to get access to puberty-blocking hormones, even without parental consent. One objection is that a strong social support system is seen as a criterion for considering children appropriate candidates for hormone blockers. Yet it is not clear this should be a criterion, for reasons similar to what Berry and colleagues argue.