Source: http://amren.com/news/2012/02/mans-immigration-status-puts-kidney-transplant-on-hold/

35-year-old Jesus Navarro is being denied urgent medical care because he is an illegal immigrant. He is slowly dying from kidney failure, and he says he fears he won't be able to see his 3-year-old daughter grow up. As an undocumented worker, Navarro is not entitled to Medicare, which pays most of the cost for a procedure.

After 6 and a half years of being on the kidney transplant recipient list, Navarro made it to the top, only to find that he would not be able to afford the essential follow up care.

Advocate Donald Kagan says UCSF should preform the transplant, because it is the right thing to do. "He's paid his taxes, he's waited his time on the list. He's done everything he's supposed to do," Kagan said.

UCSF disagrees and says it does not make its decision based on immigrant status. A spokesman says that because there is such a shortage of organs, the practical thing to do is to make sure it is given to a person who can have the best chance of long term survival, and that includes follow up care.

This is wrong. The common "illegal immigrant" debate has gotten to the point where we cannot even give them medical care just because they do not have papers, or they do not have the money. We are simply saying that we will not save this man's life because he is an illegal immigrant, and because he most likely won't be able to afford the follow up care he will need.

This is only one of many stories where people are turned down because of their immigrant status or their ill-ability to pay for the care they so desperately need.

This petition isn't just to reach out to Navarro, but to other undocumented immigrants as well. Undocumented or not, illegal or not, they deserve a second chance at life.