Hospital officials say they cannot comment on any individual cases but add that the institution "does not disqualify potential transplant candidates on the basis of intellectual abilities."
The case has drawn national attention, including at the website change.org, where a petition urging the hospital to perform the transplant had drawn more than 22,800 signatures by late Tuesday.
"It's been extraordinary," Chrissy Rivera said of the support.
Amelia is far from the first disabled person who has had difficulty getting an organ transplant. People with Down syndrome, for example, are often steered away from heart transplants, on the theory that they may have difficulty following the complex postsurgery drug regimen. Hospitals also commonly take into account other factors in deciding against a transplant, such as advanced age.
Yet denial of a transplant purely on the basis of a disability would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, said Lara Schwartz, vice president of external affairs at the American Association of People With Disabilities.
"Such a case has never been challenged under the ADA, but I think it might make a very strong case," said Michele Goodwin, a University of Minnesota law and medicine professor who researches organ transplants.
Amelia's case began to attract attention after her mother wrote an emotional blog post on a site for families affected by Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, describing her meeting with a hospital physician and a social worker. Chrissy Rivera and her husband, Joe, of Stratford, Camden County, had gone to the hospital last week to ask how family members could get tested to see if any of them were suitable kidney donors.
