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If I were the parent of a child who might be kept alive -- if only for a few more years -- by a lung transplant, I would move Heaven and Earth to get it done. It's completely understandable that the parents of 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan have made her an Internet and cable news celebrity in a desperate effort to get her on the adult list for a lung transplant. No one with a particle of human sympathy can fail to be moved by the family's situation. The story, however, has loosed a torrent of demagoguery -- some of it...

Dan Calabrese is yet another to highlight that Governor Palin foretold of “death panels,” for which she was mercilessly criticized. The truth is, unfortunately, that she was right–again. As she pointed out Tuesday on Facebook: And they called us liars when we spoke of “death panels” – faceless bureaucrats coming between you and your doctor to make life and death decisions about a loved one’s survival. It doesn’t sound so far fetched anymore, does it? Via Cain TV, Calabrese writes (emphasis added): Not that she’ll get credit for it, but when Sarah Palin warned of “death panels” resulting from the...

<p>Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl dying of cystic fibrosis, is receiving her long-awaited lung transplant.</p> <p>According to a Facebook post from Sarah’s mother, Janet, the family received word this morning of new lungs that had been made available, and Sarah is currently in surgery. The operation could take anywhere from six to 12 hours.</p>

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has to be the most coldhearted person in America. Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl, has end-stage cystic fibrosis. She is on a ventilator and will die in about a month without a lung transplant. Doctors say Sarah’s best hope for survival would be to go on the waiting list for adult lungs rather than continue on the list for pediatric lungs. Unfortunately for Sarah, there is something informally called the Under-12 rule, which says that children under 12 cannot receive adult organs unless adults and teens in their region refuse them...

Pa. girl who took on donor rules gets transplant Associated PressAssociated Press – 12 mins ago PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation drew public debate over how donated lungs are allocated was getting a transplant Wednesday, her family said. Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from severe cystic fibrosis, was receiving the transplant Wednesday at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a family spokeswoman said. Her health was deteriorating when a federal judge intervened on June 5, giving her a chance at the much larger list of organs from adult donors. The case could bring change...

If Sarah Murnaghan were 12 years old, she would be at the top of the adult lung transplant list because she only has weeks to live and a lung transplant would as-good-as cure her of cystic fibrosis. But she's not 12, and if she doesn't get new lungs, she might not even make it to 11. "We are not asking for preference for Sarah, we are asking for equality," Sarah's mother, Janet Murnaghan, said in a press release. "We strongly believe Sarah should be triaged based on the severity of her illness, not her age." Organ Donation: Should Younger Patients...

Portrait of a bureaucratic nightmare: A little girl’s dying from cystic fibrosis and has three to five weeks to live unless she gets a lung transplant before then. The good news is that adult lungs can be modified for a child her age in a way that’ll save her life — except that, because she’s only 10, she’s not eligible for them. The “adult” list starts at 12; everyone younger than that goes to the children’s list, where lungs are much harder to come by. The question is, does Sebelius have the authority to suspend those age limitations and make...

Sarah Murnaghan's situation is a prime example of why we need smaller government involved in our lives and why we do not need Obamacare....

Now, I mentioned earlier in the program that "A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the US Health and Human Services Secretary to suspend existing organ allocation rules to give a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl a better chance at a life-saving lung transplant." The judge is Michael Baylson. He´s a Bush, George W. Bush appointee. Judge Baylson "told Kathleen Sebelius to direct the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, or OPTN, to make an exception to the so-called ´Under-12´ rule as it applies to Sarah Murnaghan, who has end-stage cystic fibrosis, for at least 10 days, until a hearing on June 14.

Cannot find any recent news on Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Philadelphia girl who fought a legal battle to be included on the adult lung transplant list. Does anyone know how she is doing?

A federal judge in Philadelphia has made a dying 10-year-old eligible to seek donor lungs from an adult transplant list. U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson says he is granting the temporary request because of the severity of Sarah Murnaghan's condition. Her mother, Janet Murnaghan, says the family is thrilled by the ruling. It's in effect until a June 14 court hearing. The family is challenging organ transplant rules that say children under age 12 must wait for pediatric lungs to become available. The Murnaghans say that rarely happens. Sarah's doctors believe they can perform a successful transplant with adult lungs....

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rebuffed an appeal from Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., on behalf of a girl who needs a lung transplant but can’t get one because of a federal regulation that prevents her from qualifying for a transplant. … “I would suggest, sir, that, again, this is an incredibly agonizing situation where someone lives and someone dies,” Sebelius replied. “The medical evidence and the transplant doctors who are making the rule—and have had the rule in place since 2005 making a delineation between pediatric and adult lungs, because lungs are different than other organs—that it’s based...

The campaign to move a dying 10-year-old onto the waiting list for adult lungs has succeeded: Wednesday afternoon Sarah Murnaghan underwent transplant surgery in Philadelphia and she has a good chance at a longer life. What may never be known is who may have suffered in her stead. When one person moves up an organ transplant waiting list, another person may move down If all goes well, the young cystic fibrosis patient will get a fresh start on childhood, able to spend time with friends, play sports and do other normal kid things, Samuel Goldfarb, her doctor at Children’s Hospital...

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to allow 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan to be moved to the adult lung transplant list, giving her a better chance of receiving a potentially life-saving transplant. The quick and unusual ruling, made after a hastily scheduled emergency hearing, follows a campaign by the family and some members of Congress to pressure the Obama administration to change a federal policy that puts children under age 12 at the bottom of the list of those who can receive donated adult lungs. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/sarah-murnaghan-lung-transplant-ruling-kathleen-sebelius-92299.html#ixzz2VSM7MrLz

There were fireworks at the D.C. Circuit today as the IRS and HHS squared off against appellants challenging the IRS’s power grab in Halbig v. Sebelius. I attended arguments today and provide the following synopsis. (Carrie Severino has discussed the district court’s opinion here, here, here, and here. Carrie also filed an amicus brief in the case.) The central question is: Does the phrase “established by the State” actually mean what it says, or is that just a fancy way of saying “established by either the State or by the federal government?” At issue is a tax subsidy that the IRS...

In Casablanca, Captain Renault feigns surprise by famously declaring, “I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Moments later, a croupier hands Renault a pile of money, saying, “Your winnings, sir.” Just as Renault wasn’t really surprised that Rick’s Café would break the law, none of can be surprised this week that President Obama and the implementers of Obamacare are breaking the law – again. After all, they’ve played fast and loose with the law creating Obamacare since it was (sloppily) written and (barely) passed almost exactly four (long) years ago. The most notorious of Obama’s...

Government economists revised upwards their GDP estimates for the fourth quarter of 2013. And guess what? We did much better than anybody thought possible! The Commerce Department revised GDP upwards to 2.6% growth from the 2.4% growth that they had previously estimated for the fourth quarter. So while everybody was bemoaning the fact that the Christmas shopping numbers that came out in December were adversely affected by weather, it's clear now to government economists that the effects of fourth quarter weather were put off until the first quarter of 2014. Or something. “Robust consumer spending on services,” says Bloomberg, “particularly...

You only have 5 to 7 days or maybe 30 days to comply with the law and this time they mean it. Kind of. And once again Obama has shown us that his basic problem is not one of governance but one of math. After sternly vowing there would be no more delays for Obamacare, Obama and company sternly vowed to delay, and delay, and delay until every man woman and child in America is sick to death of Obama's signature legislation. "According to a Health and Human Services official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about decisions that...

Kathleen Sebelius: Obamacare Extension 'Is Not An Extension' by Wynton Hall 26 Mar 2014, 1:38 PM PDT Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday that the Obama administration's decision to extend the Obamacare open enrollment period is not, in fact, an extension. "This is not an extension of open enrollment," Sebelius told Michigan Fox 2. "It is just saying, like you do on election day, if you're in line to vote, we want to make sure you vote." However, unlike election day, the Washington Post says the Obama administration will give people several weeks – until mid-April...