The ability to keep a person alive with Organ Transplant

The ability to keep a person alive by replacing a major body organ is a remarkable achievement of twentieth-century medicine. Unfortunately, the current supply of transplant organs is much lower than the demand for them, which means that many people die each year due to a scarcity of organs for replacement. Those with bad lifestyle choices, such as alcoholics, should not be offered the same chance for an organ transplant as other people because the odds of relapse are significant. Ethical issues come in line with both the transplant organs procurement and their fair distribution. In this regard, it is imperative to determine whether or not people with bad lifestyle choices such as alcoholics should be given an equal chance to acquire an organ transplant.

Ethical Position

The main reason the scientists have presented against offering alcoholics the same opportunity for an organ transplant is that the people who have bad habits such as alcoholism are morally accountable for their organ damage resulting from their habits (Ho, 2015). Precisely, they have argued that patients that have a moral responsibility for their health conditions ought to be given a lower chance for medical resources when they are competing with people who do not bear moral responsibility for the condition of their health.

On the other hand, some people have argued that whether the alcoholics have the moral responsibility for their medical conditions is dependent on whether or not they are responsible for their alcoholism (Cohen & Benjamin, 2012). In this regard, it has been pointed out that if the alcoholics are found not to be responsible for the alcoholism, it would not be right to give them a different treatment than to those people who develop liver conditions following reasons not within their control.

However, it should be remembered that the transplant organ supply is currently limited. Therefore, it would be right to have a criterion to be followed in giving these organs to people. I support the argument that alcoholics should not be given an equal chance where other people have similar medical conditions that require a liver transplant. Fundamentally, it is true that some people might not be accountable for their alcoholism and it is wrong to treat them differently from other people; however, it has also been established that alcoholics might relapse after organ transplantation and it has been argued that this would affect their postoperative prognoses in an adverse way (Moss & Siegler, 2012). Indeed, it would not be fair to give someone an organ only to eventually waste it due to a relapse.

Clinical Recommendations

Demand for the transplant organs can be reduced by dealing with the causes of organ damages. For instance, people could be educated to change their wrong lifestyle choices such as alcohol consumption, smoking, and poor nutrition. Indeed, this would play a significant role in addressing the ethical dilemma that arises from the issue of whether or not people with lifestyle choices can be offered an equal chance to obtain an organ transplant.

Conclusion

From the analysis, it is imperative that due to the limited supply of transplant organs, people with bad lifestyle choices such as alcoholics should not be given the same chance to receive an organ transplant as other people because chances of relapse are high. However, to help find a long-term solution to this problem, people should be taught about the consequences of making wrong lifestyle choices and how to change and get rid of such bad habits.

References

Cohen, C., & Benjamin M. (2012). The ethics and social impact committee of transplant and health policy center. JAMA, 265, 1299-1301.

Ho, D. (2015). When good organs go to bad people. Bioethics, 22(2), 77-83.

Moss, A., & Siegler M. (2012). Should alcoholics compete equally for liver transplantation? JAMA, 265, 1296-1298.