Physicians Not Responsible for Patients’ Character

When determining whether a patient should receive a particular organ transplant, physicians should not be considering "the intrinsic worthiness of the recipient as a human being," Gerald Levey, vice chancellor of medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, writes in an opinion piece. He adds, "No physician should be making that judgment; to do so would be to impose a death sentence on some patients and, besides, matters of punishment are best left to the justice system."

• "'Bad Guy' Transplants" (Levey, Los Angeles Times, 6/6).