The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has released a statement defending its determination that James Earl Ray is eligible for a liver transplant and should be placed on a national waiting list.
However, before the convicted killer of Martin Luther King, Jr., can actually be listed for transplantation at UPMC, he will be required to pay a deposit, which, the medical center said, is standard procedure for patients without medical insurance.
The decision to place 69-year-old Ray on the list comes after Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and the University of Tennessee in Memphis refused to evaluate Ray for transplantation based on his age. UPMC surgeons have performed transplants in about 250 patients older than 65, the oldest being 78.
"After completing a medical evaluation for liver transplantation, UPMC surgeons have determined that Mr. Ray meets all medical criteria to be placed on the national transplant waiting list," the medical center said in a statement. Ray, who is serving a life sentence for murder, has cirrhosis of the liver caused by chronic hepatitis C infection.
The statement emphasized that it is the medical center's philosophy "that all patients be treated equally and fairly and that their candidacy for transplantation be judged on medical criteria alone…. The UPMC recognizes it is society's determination, not the medical center's, whether or not individuals, including inmates, have access to such medical resources as transplantation." Inmates, the statement continued, are not precluded by any national policy from receiving transplants.
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