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Peer-reviewed article

Meeting “My” Recipient

This chapter talks about the process of medical tests, information sessions, and psychological evaluations after Deb Porter Gill and the author matched with on all six HLA tissue type markers. The chapter displays the author's excitement…

By John D. LantosJanuary 1, 20211 min readin Cornell University Press eBooks

This chapter talks about the process of medical tests, information sessions, and psychological evaluations after Deb Porter Gill and the author matched with on all six HLA tissue type markers. The chapter displays the author's excitement to meet Deb, however, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rules preclude the hospital from disclosing a potential donor's name to an unrelated recipient. By fortunate coincidence, Deb was en route to spend a week in Kansas City when she read the author's Facebook message. They both agreed they should take advantage of this chance to meet in person. The chapter then narrates the conversation they had about writing and publishing, politics, child welfare, and everyone they knew in common.

Originally published at Cornell University Press eBooks · January 1, 2021.

About the author

John D. Lantos is a pediatrician and bioethicist writing on AI in medicine, neonatal intensive care, and end-of-life decisions. His essays appear in JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, the Hastings Center Report, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Aeon. Read more about John.

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