Healthcare Alcoholics and Liver Transplantation

Healthcare

Alcoholics and Liver Transplantation

In the article Alcoholics and liver transplantation. The Ethics and Social Impact Committee of the Transplant and Health Policy Center, Carl Cohen, Martin Benjamin, and their associates look at the moral and medical points-of-view for not including alcoholics as candidates for liver transplants and conclude that neither side of the argument justifies a categorical exclusion. There are two arguments that motivate an extensive reluctance to consider people with alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver as contenders for transplantation. This argument states that alcoholics are morally responsible for their condition. Their condition is the outcome of their own bad behavior and such behavior should disqualify alcoholics for contention for organs with others who are just as ill but are not to blame. Second the argument states that because of their behavior, alcoholics will not demonstrate acceptable rates of endurance after transplantation. Therefore good responsibility of scarce lifesaving resources necessitates that alcoholics not be considered for liver transplantation. These arguments are carefully looked at and shown to be bad. There is no good moral or medical reason for definitely precluding alcoholics as contenders for liver transplantation. It would, additionally, be unwarranted to put into practice such preclusion just for the reason that others might respond negatively if it is not.

Cohen and Benjamin look at the two arguments that underlie the exclusion of alcoholics from this potentially life-saving course of action. The moral argument holds that alcoholics are to blame for their circumstance, and that this blame should exclude them from competition for scarce donor livers with other people with end-stage liver disease who are not to blame for their sickness. The argument from the medical perspective says that alcoholics do not do well after liver transplantation, and that limited donor livers should not be given to a group with a reduced chance of survival. Cohen and Benjamin rebuff as unjust and undesirable both sides for withholding liver transplantation from alcoholics. They also reject the argument that public support for transplantation will endure something bad if it becomes known that donated organs are being used for alcoholics.

There is an extensive reluctance to consider people with alcoholic cirrhosis for liver transplantation. The authors of this article do a good job of presenting both sides of the argument about whether alcoholics should be eligible for liver transplants. They present both a moral argument and a medical argument and compare and contrast both sides before drawing their conclusion. They illustrate the screening and selection process for liver transplant contenders in a concise manner. At the end the authors dissect the objection to the moral argument and the medical argument of not allowing alcoholics to receive liver transplants. They reply to both of these objections with the reasons as to why alcoholics should be allowed to receive transplants. In the end they conclude that there is not good reason presented on either side that says these people should not be allowed to be eligible for liver transplants.