Should Intellectual Disabilities be taken into account when considering an organ transplant?
A study done in 2006 concluded that Intellectual Disabilities (formerly known as Mental Retardation) had no affect on the success rates of kidney transplants.
Researchers looked at cases across the world and found survival rates at 100% after one year and 90% after three years. That’s comparable to the rates for the overall population according to Steven Reiss, co-author of the study and professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University and director of Ohio State 's Nisonger Center for Mental Retardation
“From these results, there doesn't seem to be any reason to think the mentally retarded are not good candidates for transplants,” said Reiss.
The 2006 article highlighting these findings states:
In the early years of transplants, people with MR were routinely turned down for transplants because they were presumed to have a low quality of life, Reiss said. But a 1995 lawsuit in California brought by the family of a woman with Down syndrome, who was initially denied a heart-lung transplant because of her disability, helped stop obvious discrimination.
But recent events bring to light that this discrimination is still ongoing, possibly veiled in medical transplant committees who cloak their conclusions in HIPAA.
One concern about patients with Intellectual Disabilities had been whether or not they’d be diligent about taking their anti-rejection medications. But that was not seen in patients with MR, likely because caregivers were more diligent about administering the proper care.
The question remains, then, why “Mental Retardation” is still on the printed checklist of reasons why a transplant operation could be denied.
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