‘A face that should haunt a generation’ wrote Liz Hunt in the Daily Telegraph, referring to the unhappy tale of Gary Reinbach, a 22 year old man who has died of cirrhosis of the liver. His doctors recommended a liver transplant but the rules did not permit it; to qualify for a liver transplant you have to show you can lead an alcohol-free life and Mr. Reinbach was too ill to leave hospital and show it. So he died.
There seems to me to be a number of ways in which this is picture should ‘haunt a generation’. One is Mr. Reinbach’s mother Madeline (sic) Hanshaw who did nothing to stop her son drinking heavily at age 13, before he had reached the age of legal responsibility, much less that when you can drink legally. Her conduct as a parent, whilst not unique, would seem to be sufficiently reprehensible as to excite comment, but the papers report her blaming her divorce, and now starting a campaign to make sure, yes, you guessed it, that Gary didn't die in vain.
Another thing which makes this story unforgettable is the attitude of the NHS. Mr Reinbach was sick, and if the NHS is to mean anything at all he should be entitled to rely on it to treat him without making moral judgment on his behaviour at age 13. Let us return to the Telegraph’s Ms Hunt: ‘A liver wasted – and I use that word deliberately – on a chronic alcoholic, whatever his or her age, is a chance of life denied to a more deserving recipient.‘ She compares the story with that of a young girl who asked not to be treated (for a heart transplant) and then changed her mind ‘Her illness, unlike Gary's, was not self-inflicted.’
It must be nice to feel so sure of yourself that you can sit in judgment of others as Ms Hunt does, and as do the bureaucrats who draw up the regulations. You have to be worthy of treatment, and even though money is deducted from your pay packet to pay for that treatment, they reserve the right to deny it to you on moral grounds.
I have two questions:
1. How did George Best get a liver transplant? Surely nobody thought he would, or could, go on the wagon for the rest of his life?
2. Will we now be refusing AIDS treatment to promiscuous homosexuals on the grounds that their illness was self-inflicted?
The answer to the first question is that Mr. Best was famous, whereas Mr. Reinbach was a statistic. The answer to the second question of course is no, and nor should we.
There seems to me to be a number of ways in which this is picture should ‘haunt a generation’. One is Mr. Reinbach’s mother Madeline (sic) Hanshaw who did nothing to stop her son drinking heavily at age 13, before he had reached the age of legal responsibility, much less that when you can drink legally. Her conduct as a parent, whilst not unique, would seem to be sufficiently reprehensible as to excite comment, but the papers report her blaming her divorce, and now starting a campaign to make sure, yes, you guessed it, that Gary didn't die in vain.
Another thing which makes this story unforgettable is the attitude of the NHS. Mr Reinbach was sick, and if the NHS is to mean anything at all he should be entitled to rely on it to treat him without making moral judgment on his behaviour at age 13. Let us return to the Telegraph’s Ms Hunt: ‘A liver wasted – and I use that word deliberately – on a chronic alcoholic, whatever his or her age, is a chance of life denied to a more deserving recipient.‘ She compares the story with that of a young girl who asked not to be treated (for a heart transplant) and then changed her mind ‘Her illness, unlike Gary's, was not self-inflicted.’
It must be nice to feel so sure of yourself that you can sit in judgment of others as Ms Hunt does, and as do the bureaucrats who draw up the regulations. You have to be worthy of treatment, and even though money is deducted from your pay packet to pay for that treatment, they reserve the right to deny it to you on moral grounds.
I have two questions:
1. How did George Best get a liver transplant? Surely nobody thought he would, or could, go on the wagon for the rest of his life?
2. Will we now be refusing AIDS treatment to promiscuous homosexuals on the grounds that their illness was self-inflicted?
The answer to the first question is that Mr. Best was famous, whereas Mr. Reinbach was a statistic. The answer to the second question of course is no, and nor should we.
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