Poll: Would You Save This Person?

[Iron Mal]

By all means we should try to help everyone we can if it's reasonably possible to do so (if the resources are avalible), in situations where the parts and organs required are limited then they should only be distributed in cases where they believe they will have the greatest effect (ie: where they believe the person will make a complete recovery and stay that way).

As to whether it is the boy's fault or if he is a victim of circumstance...it is debatable.

On the one hand he it could be argued that he and he alone decided to drink to such an extreme that he had severe liver damage by the age of 22, on the other, for many people it is in fact a habit that they have little or no control over. It is a complex and uncertain situation on which no-one can make a definate opinion without clearly being biased one way or the other.

 

[Blackdoom]

Why do people it is always someone else's fault for the own actions? he has no one to blame for what happened to him but himself, so why should his life be spared whilst a more deserving person's life is not?

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

No, and no. Alcoholism and addication are not diseases. It is not something you cannot help. You are in that position solely because of your actions, not those of a microbe or something only visible under a microscope. I wouldn't save him either way.

Just to set the record straight, self-destructive tendencies are a deep-rooted psychological problem developed as a coping mechanism against either one's own instability or environment, and not uncommonly, both. While such psychological problems could certainly be dismissed as too intangible to be considered a real illness by everyday people unless the afflicted attacks someone else, I assure you, they are not something that one can simply will away.

 

[Generator]

I'm surprised that more people would let him die either way. He made a bad decision, so he should not be top priority. However, if we had unlimited resources, why not help him? That would be like letting someone who was too fat to get up and get his own food starve. Of course, I suppose this is a moral decision. Personally, though, I feel like I wouldn't be able to let someone die if I had the choice, unless they did something that made them deserve it (i.e. committing murder, rape, etc.). Oh, and hopefully Max doesn't see that "murder=bad" thing I said.

 

[lostclause]

My dad has to deal with organ transplants all the time so I hear his complaints. There was a guy who needed a transplant but had tried to commit suicide more than once. They denied him. There is a shortage of organs they give them to those who are most likely to put them to good use/survive with said organs (i.e. similar to the donor).
Also the second question isn't correct. Transplants aren't risk free. You have tissue rejection which means that your immune system has to be suppressed in order for you to recieve a transplant. Hence most people die of infections a few months or years after a transplant. So it's not risk free even if we had an unlimited supply.

Technically the best bet for organs would just be a lottery.

You have to get it as similar to the donor as possible to reduce rejection so that wouldn't work. You'd waste too many organs.

 

[US Crash Fire]

at 13 your brain is not fully capable of thinking long term and the consiquences of your actions. it makes me think how much his parrents were involved with his life that this could happen. the point is we cant start playing God by judging if someone deserves to live or not. im a firefighter with the US Air Force and a nationally registered EMT. as such i am required to give medical attention to not only coalition forces and civilians but ENEMY SOLDIERS as well. if someone needs help and we have the power to do so we should. as far as the message it would send to help the alkie boy, if he dies it would only spread controversy about how he was sentenced to death by the doctors. if he lives he can be used as a tool to prevent other children from drinking by going to schools and public events and telling his story. but i do think there is a possibility he will crack open a cold one (or warm one since he's Brittish) as soon as he gets out of recovery. but if he wants to destroy himself theres not much we can do.

 

[Codeman90]

As a recipient of a Liver at the age of 8 (I was born with a very dangerous disease) I think he should be saved once. Going through a transplant is one HELL of a procedure. Days of testing, Weeks of recovery it is not an in and out thing. I think it's traumatic enough to effect someone in a way that they won't drink again.

Heck I myself will never be able to get drunk really. A few drinks here and there maybe but getting drunk means there is a good chance I won't get back up. Another thing is that if you screw up your medication (I right now am on one particular drug twice a day) for just a few days about 2-3 there is good chance of going into rejection. If that happens you will need a new organ but they put your irresponsibility into account when placing you on the donation list.

I myself have been incredibly lucky. 10 years with no signs of trouble and I'm going in for my yearly testing with the Mayo Clinic soon. It's something that stays with you and you sure as hell can't forget it.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Seems kind of like giving a glue sniffer a new brain to rot...
But at least I'm going to donate my organs when I die (Hopefully to people who deserve. If not, They'll have hell to pay)

 

[Codeman90]

I think I'm going to go with the safest option and abstain

Not to be cruel but not choosing means that the disease destroys his liver and he dies an agonizing death. Not choosing just means he goes on thinking he might be saved but such is not the case.

 

[DannyboyO1]

Um. He's been drunk off his ass for all of his pubescence. Clearly this is not a fellow that's big on contributing to society. He is at least useful as an example of what not to do. Hell, he got this way from not quite dying from alcohol poisoning... so he was lucky enough to not OD in any one night, so he could die of the chronic effects of alcohol poisoning.

 

[Vern]

He shouldn't be saved ahead of other people, but in a perfect world then he should get a transplant. Alcoholism is a genetic disease, there are people more apt to drink or smoke than others. It's both a mental a physical dependency that can be passed down not only through environment, but through genetics. Even children of former alcoholics who were born after a parent stopped drinking have a higher chance of being alcoholics, and it's one of the few drugs aside from heroin that your body develops a physical dependency on. People who advance far enough into alcoholism, especially into the DT phase can actually die from alcohol withdrawal, so it can be physically impossible to stop drinking after a point.
That being said, there is also a personal responsibility involved, and it's a disease you can avoid, unlike some other diseases that damage organs where there's no way they can be avoided. I won't fault him for his shitty parenting, shitty environment, and probably genetic predisposition towards the drink. But honestly, at 22 if he receives the transplant, and with the friends and family that he has around him, he'll go right back to drinking. But honestly, all aside if his mother actually paid attention to him for the last 9 years while he was drinking himself to death, and cared enough and was brave enough to confront him it may have been avoided.
I feel bad for the kid. He certainly made his own choices, but it seems like the environment he was raised in reveled in drinking, his parent(s) didn't give a shit, all his friends were doing it, their parents apparently approved of it as well, and sat back while a child drank themselves into oblivion. It's sad, but considering the environment he came from, and the obvious lack of familial support he'll have if he gets out, I can't see him not drinking. Thus, it should go to someone who hasn't had a history of self destruction, who actually suffers from an unavoidable disease where nothing could've stopped it.

 

[quack35]

I think he deserves another chance...

Maybe...

Damn, this is a tough question.

 

[evan573]

i dont know if someone CAN be denied an organ if they need it but i think that, given this man's history and the limited number of organs we can give, he should be denied.

 

[Xanadeas]

No to the first and no to the second.

There is no evidence supporting the possibility of him giving up his drinking after receiving the new liver. Someone that needs it more and who would be less likely to destroy it again should get it. Survival of the fittest is particularly lacking any more. This sort of balances it out a tad bit.

As to my reasoning behind the second answer... Frankly the guy's a god damn idiot. There is no excuse for what he has done. He fell in with a bad crowd? All his friends were doing it? Let the bastard rot away. If a person is ignorant of the health risks of a particular action such as drinking then they haven't paid attention to the countless warnings all over the place.

Addiction is not a disease. It is something people begin with a voluntary choice. People choose to smoke, people choose to drink, people choose to go on the internet, people choose to play video games. Then people choose not to quit. He chose to drink, he chose not to quit. Now he's paying a price for his actions. Every action and behavior has consequences good or bad. He should live, or in this case, die with the choices he's made.

 

[wolfy098]

Speaking as a 14yo
your fault leave me be
I'm tring to sleep

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Simple answer, he got addicted, people with genuine illnesses deserve to survive.