Would you give part of your liver to someone who needed it but could not stop drinking?

Question for Europeans. Do they just go around giving out organs willy nilly over there? Is there not a shortage of organs for donation in Europe like there is here?

Question for everybody. What do you guys think? Should this woman go to Europe and get a liver? Should transplants be given to people who aren't able to follow the rules? Should exceptions be made for people who just can't stop drinking even knowing they will die or not be able to get a transplant trust me I struggle I know its hard to stop drinking. I'm of the opinion that since its the boyfriend or whatever giving her the liver and presumably he would not just be donating part of his liver to just anybody on the waiting list. He wants it specifically to go to this woman even knowing she will likely continue drinking and inevitably die sooner. So let them do it. Is it helping her? Of course not. It is prolonging her suffering.

I'll be frank and maybe mean as I tend to be. But this story ok if you look up entitlement in the dictionary it is a picture of this woman.

I am not gonna claim i know why her liver failed or if it is related to alcohol. She admits to an alcohol problem. I have an alcohol problem too so I am sympathetic but to know I mean absolutely know for a fact at the age of 36 that if I dont quit drinking I will die no wait take that back first to know that if I dont quit drinking I will need a liver transplant. Then ignore that and keep drinking to the point that now you can't get a transplant. I dont know what to say about this. I feel like it can be done. You can stop drinking for several months a year whatever it is in order to get the transplant and then start back up again I suppose if you want.

In this case her boyfriend fiance husband whatever has offered her the partial liver. And he wants her to have it obviously despite her alcoholism. So maybe he won't care if he undergoes this massive operation for her and she pisses it all away literally ruins the new liver and dies soon after the procedure. Who knows whats going thru this guys mind.

A dying woman has been denied a partial liver transplant offered by her own partner for drinking while she was on the waiting list.

Amanda Husk, 36, has been on life support for three months awaiting the much-needed organ.

But she was denied the transplant after medics found the struggling alcoholic had relapsed before being admitted to hospital.

Now her devastated loved ones have been told she has just weeks to live, despite Husk agreeing to enter into an addiction program once she got her new liver.

'This was a wakeup call for her, she wanted to make every advantage and every opportunity to make sure she could get this transplant and turn her life around,' her partner Nathan Allen told CTV News.

So it wasn't a wakeup call to be told her liver is failing and to stop drinking or she won't get a transplant. It is now a wakeup call once she's actually been denied a transplant and will definitely die without one as she's on life support now. The denial. Absolute denial these people are in. She wants to go to Europe because they'll give her a liver there. Apparently. Apparently Europeans and european doctors don't care who the liver goes to? I guess. I'm not an expert but I wouldn't want an organ going to someone who can't get it together enough to realize they will be dead. At 36. If they don't stop drinking. And who is enabling this woman?!?!?!?!

However, medics at University Health Network in Ontario have refused the transplant request citing 'minimal abstinence outside of hospital'.
Allen's next course of action is to try to get Husk to Europe where a transplant would be possible, but he fears she may not survive that long.

'We were told last week that she has a couple of weeks left to live maybe a month if she's very lucky,' Allen said explaining the treatment could cost $300,000.

'I will do whatever I can to save her life, just like the medical profession should be doing here.' 

Husk began drinking as a teenager and struggled to get her addiction under control. 

The heartbreaking case has ignited ethical questions around the treatment of addiction.

Around 600 people are currently awaiting a liver transplant for a variety of reasons. About one in ten people who receive a transplant for alcoholic liver disease return to drinking.

599 other people can maybe follow rules and get an organ. Maybe the self preservation instinct is stronger in these people than this woman, maybe not. Who knows?

This lady whose husband died after being denied a transplant for continuing drinking has a problem with it.

Debra Selkirk, whose husband Mark died in 2010 after being denied a liver transplant due to drinking, slammed the decision.

A life-saving procedure is being based on perceived poor behavior,' she said.

'People aren't turned away because they didn't exercise or because they work too much or they don't get enough sleep or they didn't follow doctor's orders. 

'So, in Nathan and Amanda's case, you're seeing someone being told, 'You didn't follow doctor's orders, so we're not going to help you. We're going to let you die,'' she said.

Selkirk campaigns for more compassion towards those with liver failure caused by alcohol abuse.

Doctors have reasons for all these rules though. How fair is it to all those who are able to follow these rules. They get to possibly die because it feels bad to enforce rules I suppose. It makes someone sad to say no. You didn't follow the rules therefore you do not get this opportunity. Especially when it actually is a life or death situation.

Edmonton liver transplant surgeon, Dr. Saumya Jayakumar, who was not involved in Husk's case explained that criteria for transplants is usually fairly uniform across Canada.

'It's a precious gift. It's a limited resource,' she said. 'As you can imagine, making these decisions can result in a significant amount of moral distress with members of the team. 

'We can give you a brand new liver, but if we're not able to change all of the circumstances that led to the liver failing, then have we really done you a service?' she said.

Quotes are from www.dailymail.co.uk...

It's a couple things, not just one thing.

You have the couple, and their liver plans. Then you have the not just the doctors, but an entire transplant team along with their logistical needs and scheduling demands.

I certainly don't know how to make any judgement call on that other than to say that yeah, alchohol is a big mess.

I've had to learn the hard way myself that if you don't iron yourself out, someone will eventually come along and do it for you. Self reliance, as hard as it is to attain, is the only solution. Self reliance can't include alchohol because it marks out a path to others ironing you out for yourself. And on it goes...

Alcohol was a problem for me, too.

I quit drinking 3 years ago, and haven't looked back. My life has improved 1000%, even my 2 friends that stood beside me don't believe the changes I have made. (Those 2 got sober with me, all the rest stopped hanging out with us...guess we are not as fun anymore...their loss)

It was a struggle for 3 years before that, so I understand the struggle.

But I can honestly say, every choice we make, has it's result. Some good, some bad.

If it were anybody other than the boyfriend, I would say no....it is a waste.

Back in the early 2000s, a group of us were out, and a friend stopped by...he was a double jack and coke guy. He was 45.

He told us if he didn't quit drinking, he would be dead in 6 weeks.

He ordered a double double...4 shots to the coke. 2 weeks to the day, and I was sitting at the cemetery.

To me, it showed he wasn't a true friend...to give up on us was BS.

a reply to: Shoshanna

Short answer: NO!

Long answer: HELL, NO!

I forgot to say, and I'll get a bad spanking if I don't.

You need to be self reliant enough to rely on Jesus, because He helps those that help themselves.

If you are drinking and you want out of it, call His name.

Would you give part of your liver to someone who needed it but could not stop drinking?

NO!

I would, a good friend of mine frommy younger died because of liver failure a couple of years ago and if I was still in contact I;d donate and then split a bottle of single malt with them.

Now, if the person had caught hep C from IV drug use and were still using thats a different story.

a reply to: Shoshanna

George Best
What a selfish Bastardo.

Best, who yesterday remained in intensive care at the Cromwell hospital in London after suffering a kidney infection, satisfied surgeons that he was suitable for a liver transplant in 2002 after suffering alcohol-induced cirrhosis. But since his operation, he has resumed drinking against the advice of his doctor.

I like my alcohol and most alcoholics have an excuse of some sort.
I still eat and drink tea and exercise but I am an Alcoholic.

But George Best was imo a selfish bastardo.

www.theguardian.com... .medicineandhealth

originally posted by: TheDiscoKing
I forgot to say, and I'll get a bad spanking if I don't.

You need to be self reliant enough to rely on Jesus, because He helps those that help themselves.

If you are drinking and you want out of it, call His name.

I did..He said go to the shop and replenish.
Jokes
I am going to the shop but also going to do a few mile walk.
Beautifull weather today.

originally posted by: alwaysbeenhere2

originally posted by: TheDiscoKing
I forgot to say, and I'll get a bad spanking if I don't.

You need to be self reliant enough to rely on Jesus, because He helps those that help themselves.

If you are drinking and you want out of it, call His name.

I did..He said go to the shop and replenish.
Jokes
I am going to the shop but also going to do a few mile walk.
Beautifull weather today.

He seems to like the real hard case class clown types the most. I think because he might have been one.

Case in point:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

Ok. It's not. I'm not even going to plumb the depths of precisely how hilariously not light or easy his burden is. But it cracks me up every day.

Once you have taken his yoke, I don't think it's possible to carry the burden that Jesus places upon a person, along with the burden that alchohol places upon a person.

Immunosupprecent drugs do just that-depress the immune system to help prevent rejection. Alcohol also supresses the immune system, and the two combined can drastically increase the effect, leaving one even more susceptible to infection.

$300,00.00+ is a lot of money for a transplant that has zero chance of prolonging life for any but a minimal period of time.
I think it makes more sense for the resources to be used on people who have a greater cahnce of living a productive life after being given this second chance.

If people want to donate their organs to an alcoholic using only their own funds perhaps they could fins a doctor willing to waste his time for a few greenbacks.

Absolutely not