Doing Harm By Doing Nothing. Denied Do To Mental Disablility

Almost 24 hours ago I caught a post on Facebook from a disability parent-advocate , that I follow, about a 3 year old child that was denied a kidney transplant because of her mental disability, "mental retardation" they called it.  I am nurse myself and I still have a hard time saying that word "retarded". It just seems so mean and final, almost like there is NOTHING that that person can do.

Here is the blog for you to read Amelia's story and the stomach churning moment that no parent want to live through when trying to fight for their child.

As I read the story my heart just broke and I cried.  I cried because my faith in the health care system was just shattered.  As a nurse I tried to see it how the doctors see it, but I couldn't.  I called medical friends and tried to have them explain it to me, they couldn't.  I was at a loss for words.  These parents were not being told, "There is nothing we CAN do for your child."  They were being told, "We are NOT going to do anything for your child.  We feel your child's live is not worth saving."
Can CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) really say, "we did everything we could to save your child"?  I would say no.

I guess what really bothers me is that they are playing Darwin's , survival of the fittest (even though Herbert Spencer is who coined the term).  We allow abortions and death penalty, what have we really shown in regards to the human life.  Now it just seems to many that life is a game and not a treasure.  The only value is how much money someone is willing to pay for that person to live and some cases die.

I don't know what the future may hold for Amelia, I don't know what Amelia thinks or feels, but I do know that she already has shown a purpose on this earth, and that is to show no matter how little or how much someone can do, all life is worth trying to save.

Here is a petition for you to sign that Sunday of Extreme Parenthood started through Change.org  (while there check out their many other petitions that have been started by this organization).

Here is the information to file a suggestion, complaint, or grievance by discussing with the clinic, unit, or department manager or any other supervisory person, by contacting The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Family Relations Office phone at 267-426-6983 (inside the Hospital dial ext. 6-6983), e-mail at FamilyRelations@email.chop.edu, fax at 267-426-6990, or by snail mail addressed to the Family Relations Office, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104.