News Watch: Drug Addict Refused Second Liver Transplant

You can read the article here: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/6850483/dying-drug-addict-refused-second-liver-transplant/

So the basic facts of the story are:

1. 24 year old, mother of 2 children (aged 5 and 4)
2. refused second liver transplant
3. was a drug addict, which resulted in her neededing the first liver transplant
4. continued to use drugs after the first liver transplant

Now there are some conflicting issues here. Firstly, since she has been refused the transplant (well, to be put on the waiting list).. she only has 6 months left to live. How can we just let a mother of 2 children die, if there's something we can do about it? But then you have to consider that livers don't exactly grow on trees, hence why there is a waiting list for them. Not only that, but she already received a transplant beforehand, yet she still continued her destructive habit of abusing drugs. To me, that first transplant is already wasted, yet there is a big deal about her being refused a second one?

There are many people out there who need a transplant to survive. As far as I know, it is highly unlikely that all of them will receive a transplant. So I think she was quite lucky to receive her first one... let alone trying to get another. I'm not saying she deserves to die or anything... it takes a lot to say someone truely deserves to die (like a murderer who has no remorse)... but this is what almost made me vomit:

(Quote from the father, in the article) "She now has three to six months to live," he said. "We're very aware that if Claire goes back on the list it doesn't mean she's going to get one and it's not necessarily going to save her life. But everyone deserves another chance."

I truely believe everyone deserves another chance, but it is up to that person to make up for their mistake. In this case, she already got her second chance. She got the liver transplant, and yet she continued to endanger her health again. How many livers replacements does someone need until they finally break their habit? What about all those people still waiting for a liver who will also die if they don't get one? To my knowledge, it's already very difficult for drug addicts to be accepted to receive a transplant... probably the main reason she was able to get her first one, was that she has young children.

He said 19 liver transplants were carried out in WA last year, and three people died waiting for a new liver.

What about those 3 people who died while waiting for a liver? It would not be surprising if there will be a similar number this year. Is she more deserving to receive a second implant than those other people? I don't have a definite answer to that, but it is my opinion that transplants can not be wasted because of stupid reasons like the patient is a drug addict and still doesn't break the habit. I'm not saying it is easy to break an addiction, but you would think they would try really hard considering how fortunate she was to receive the donor liver.

I guess there might be other circumstances that caused the liver to fail, but the only information provided was the continued drug use, and inadequate rehabilitation... but to me, continuing drug use is just plain stupid, whether it caused the liver to fail or not. You should have the decency to try to do anything you can to prevent the liver from failing... first step would be to get rid of any bad drugs like heroin, and having your family ensure you stay away from it (i.e. they keep an eye on you).

Seems like they are going to see a specialist to try to do a live donation, via a family member, so I hope that works out for them, because things that have a very limited supply... need to be very carefully distributed.