Organ donation not a moral or racial Issue By Diane Bujold

Organ donation not a moral or racial Issue
By Diane Bujold
Just as disease is no respecter of race and culture, donated organs are not subject to moral issues or racial profiles. When the medical professionals treating Delilah Saunders made the sad decision to not place Ms. Saunders on the waiting list for a liver transplant, they did not do so out of moral judgment about her alcohol habit or addition. Nor did they base their decision on her race (Ms. Saunders Inuk).
There are many factors to consider when placing a person on a transplant list. Receiving an organ is not a normal type of surgery. You just don't go into a hospital, receive your new organ and walk out after a couple of weeks ready to resume your previous lifestyle. It doesn't work that way.
There are stringent procedures in place for good reasons in order to ensure the best possible outcome for organ recipients. People of all races, cultures and ethnicity are on transplant lists and none can jump the que. Even then, not everyone on a transplant list is fortunate enough to receive a new organ on time to save their lives nor are there any guarantees that the organ donated will work in its new host.
However, when a person is placed on a transplant list, that person should be made aware of the life changing effects this operation will have on them (if successful) and be absolutely mentally, emotionally and physiologically prepared to accept those changes.
I have a friend, Jan (not her real name to protect her privacy) who received a heart transplant twenty-five years ago. She told me that not only did she comply with all of her medical team's recommendations before being placed on the transplant list, but she was also made aware of the aftermath of receiving her new heart.
Jan received her new heart at the very last of her struggle as she would not have lived another week otherwise. She was fortunate.
Jan is limited in all sorts of ways as to what she can and cannot do on a daily basis. But she has life. She was given a gift that she cherishes with every fiber of her being and never takes for granted. That is why she chose to follow to the letter everything her medical professionals advised her to do (including abstinence from life choices that could compromise her fragile health).
Jan concluded her story by telling me that, for her, there is a moral obligation to keep herself as healthy as possible by adhering to the doctors' advice in every way because someone had to die in order for her to receive what she called "the most precious gift".  Jan said that organs are not harvested by the thousands and placed in cold storage just waiting for people who need them. She explained to me that most organs are donated out of someone else's tragedy.
In her on words, Jan said, "I often think of the family of the person whose heart is beating inside me now. They lost their loved, one probably through an accident as most are, and then they had to make the decision to give away their loved one's heart while they were in the midst of a grieving a terrible loss. I take good care of my heart. It would be inconceivable for me not to have done what I was told beforehand in order to receive it in the first place." I agree with that statement. After all, I would like to know that the person who received my loved one's heart was a person who respected and appreciated the implications.
Jan complied with all the medical professionals' requirements from the very beginning so that her new heart would have every chance of adapting to her body and not die in her chest and go to waste as a result of any carelessness on her part. "So, for me," she said, "there was, and still is, a moral obligation."
Medical professionals do not base their decision on moral grounds. They are there to perform a function to help enable a person to live but there are rules to follow for the patient. It is not a simple procedure.
After receiving her new heart, Jan was put on a slew of medication that she must take for life. She was made aware that her entire lifestyle had to change in order to allow the new organ to heal, to adapt and to function well. One of the medications is actually an immune system suppressor. This means that her immune system is more susceptible to infection than most people. Because of this, she cannot put herself in situations where she might catch even a cold. She cannot allow friends to visit her at home if they have the slightest hint of a cold or flu. She cannot travel to places where the risks of encountering foreign bacteria that could put her life in serious peril, more so than the average person. The reason for this immune system suppressor is because the body knows when a foreign object has invaded it and works to build a defense against it. Without this suppressor, the body would quickly develop an attack against the donated heart and kill it as a foreign object.
In speaking with Jan and doing a little research, I have learned that the liver is a different matter as it is not simply a pump, like the heart. The liver has a chemical function and therefore more complex in that sense. I do not know how successful liver transplants are as opposed to heart transplants and I would have loved to have the time to consult with a medical professional on the issue, but I would venture to say that the preparation for such an operation as a liver transplant should definitely entail total abstinence from alcohol at least six months beforehand and complete abstinence for life after the surgery. One cannot return to the same lifestyle and expect everything to function normally nor should anyone expect that drinking alcohol beforehand will not in some way affect the outcome of a liver transplant.
It seems to me that Ms. Saunders' family, friends and the Aboriginal community want to turn this into a racial and a moral issue. I can understand that in light of the situation, it may be easier to clutch at the proverbial straws and point the finger in an attempt to pressure the medical industry into making an exception in Ms. Saunders's case. But how fair would that be to those others on liver transplant lists doing everything they are told in order to ensure the best possible results?
After reading the above and perhaps doing some research of your own, my hope is that the reader will see the issue for what it really is; a complex procedure that cannot be left to chance as organs are very far and few in-between. They just don't grow on trees.
I truly hope that something will change soon for Ms. Saunders and that she finally receives the liver transplant she so desperately needs. Nobody wants the worst to occur.  But let's not make this into a racial or moral issue when it simply couldn't be farther from the truth.