Patients are increasingly turning to medical crowdfunding as a way to cover their health care costs. In the case of Charlie Gard, an infant born with encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, crowdfunding was used to finance experimental nucleoside therapy. Although this treatment was not provided in the end, we will argue that the success of the Gard family’s crowdfunding campaign reveals a number of potential ethical concerns.

Read the full article authored by Gabrielle Dressler and Sarah Kelly, HMS master of bioethics students, in the Journal of Medical Ethics.