Posted 9:00 PM by steve

The story of an Englishman who died after being denied a liver transplant is supposed to be an example of the horrors of socialized medicine... but I for one am quite okay with the result... if not the process.

Livers don't grow on trees. And as such, there are going to be more people who need one than there are donor livers to be had. And as such, I like that donor livers go to people who aren't total alcoholic f**kups. I would much prefer the liver go to some kid who didn't do anything wrong than a not-so-young kid who started drinking 9 years ago and only recently decided to stop.

And somebody has to determine who gets ranked high on the list and who needs to get their affairs in order because there's no way that they're ever going to get a liver. I don't have a problem with the people who make the effort to recruit donors being the ones to decide on who gets a liver. Yes, I know there's no guarantee that they're going to do so in a way that I approve but if they're going to do the work they get to call the shots.

But I do have a problem with the government being the decision makers, as is the case in England. Not only aren't government workers the ones doing the heavy work of persuading people to let their bodies be cut up and their insides passed out, government isn't supposed to be in the business of valuing some of its citizens as being more deserving than others. It's one thing - and ok - if a private organization - whether it be a country club or a medical donor association - decides that some people just ain't worthy, it is another thing altogether - and not ok - for government to do the same thing.