Imagine a young couple giving birth to their first child. A beautiful baby girl. And then the news. Something unexpected. The baby has a serious heart defect. So serious the only way this beautiful girl will live is if she receives a heart transplant. And so it begins. A family praying for a baby to die so that their baby can live.
This is the world of organ transplant.
This is the side we don’t talk about. For a transplant to take place, another human being must die. And the family waiting begins to turn humans into things. Dehumanize the donor. Turn a human being into a collection of spare parts. They won’t tell you that. How could they? Would you? As much as they are grateful for the organ; and they are; the organ donor has to become less human-otherwise how could they pray for their death? Could you?
I remember long weekends at the hospital were tense for those waiting for transplant. These are the weekends when the young people tend to do foolish things-like drink and drive. Motorcycle accidents would be on the increase. People waiting for a donor almost held their breath because young people make the best donors. Healthy organs.
This is the world of organ transplant.
Last week the media introduced us to Debra Selkirk who was angry that her husband, Mark Selkirk, had been denied a liver transplant. She accused the medical establishment of discrimination. Her husband had been an alcoholic and when his liver failed she expected that he would be given another. Like a car part. And when told that he would not be on the list for a transplant because he had not been free of alcohol for the minimum of 6 months she was outraged. She offered a piece of her liver; expecting the hospital to do the procedure immediately; as of a liver transplant were like changing spark plugs. And when the hospital refused she refused to accept the fact that science and medicine would not fix her husband. Immediately.
I can understand that. And in the way we talk about transplants I can understand that feeling of entitlement. So she concluded that it must be discrimination against alcoholics. Alcoholism is a disability she said. And it was stigma that prevented the transplant. So she is out to change the rules; the triage system. It’s unfair she believes. Ms. Selkirk maintains. “They killed my husband. I’m angry.” She refused to accept the fact that it takes approximately six months of review and preparation for a live donor transplant. She is going for a constitutional change; as if transplants were a human right and a civil right.
Ms. Selkirk says her husband was an “amazing” man, dedicated to volunteer work and his family, despite his life-long drinking problem. I have no doubt that he was. But he was an alcoholic and knew that he could destroy his liver and unlike those living with congenital liver damage or cirrhosis (not from abuse of alcohol),he could change the path he was on by not drinking. No one said that was easy. And studies have shown that liver disease caused by alcohol can reverse itself. But it was a choice No one was preventing him from going to AA.
Yet, as she pointed out, there is some research that suggests six months of sobriety might not be necessary. So how will we as a community decide who will or will not receive a transplant-when the supply is low and the demand is high?
And how will we, in Canada, where we have universal health insurance decide how to spend the limited resources? Will we give all those, no matter how ill, the right to a living transplant?
This is the world of organ transplant.
