I think the right thing to do for the time being is to consider prolonged use of ECMO as a research practice where not everyone is accepted but those accepted t

I think the right thing to do for the time being is to consider prolonged use of ECMO as a research practice where not everyone is accepted but those accepted taken care off as long as they are conscious or have a decent chance of regaining consciousness and making their own informed decision. Costs of doing so are part of research budget that determines how many patients can be included. Not providing care to everyone is ethical so long as we don't know if the care is going to help anyway. In turn, research can determine - Exactly what kind of patients are most likely to recover after prolonged use of current ECMO machines - Potential ways to bring equipment and nursing costs down while preserving most of effectiveness. - Ways to wean the patient off intensive care long term. For example, the very first genetically modified pig heart transplant resulted in 2 months conscious survival. Even if animal transplants never become a long term solution, they could prove more cost and medically effective than ECMOs to buy time for own organ recovery or a human transplant.