The case of Jessica Santillan, the teenage girl whose heart and lung transplant was botched by doctors, has made headlines nationwide. Santillan’s complications started when she was given organs that did not match her blood type. She survived the first operations and shortly afterward was given a second set of heart and lungs. She died when her brain filled with blood after the completion of the second operation.

Santillan and her family were smuggled into the United States from Mexico in order for her to receive treatment. After her death, her parents declined donating any of her organs. The Santillan family is also suing the medical staff at The Duke University Medical Center.

The price of an individuals life is the question that stems from this incident. Santillan was not a tax paying U.S. resident, but received medical care and organs that could possibly have saved four individuals. Many newspaper articles have stated that there is a shortage of available organs, yet somehow Santillan got four.

Further, her parents refusing to donate her organs sets up a hypocrisy – they were willing to take but not to give back. The Editorial Board realizes that some religions are opposed to organ donation, but if anything could change your mind wouldn’t it be someone donating their organs to save your child?

What made Santillan any different from the other children waiting to receive life saving organ donations? Nothing. If anything she was the most unlikely candidate, given her status as a possible illegal alien.

The question of the competency of the United States medical system also arises. There is a fine line between an accident and negligence. In fact, it is because families sue for negligence that the price of operations and health care is extraordinarily high. It is in the Santillan family’s legal right to sue the doctors? What are they getting from the legal battle?

A large sum of money is not going to bring their daughter back, and litigations will only discourage more individuals from practicing medicine.