...But I sure wish medical marijuana was available everywhere. I've spent the past year battling oral cancer, and sure wish I could legally get some weed. I know from way back in my past (college years) that it sure does help your appetite. I sure could use some now, but I'm not going to risk going to prison over it. In the course of me chemotherapy and radiation therapy, I've lost 50lbs (from 170 to 120). Months of ingesting liquid foods through a PEG tube is no fun. Now that I'm back on solid food, I've managed to regain all of 5lbs.
I don't care about Mr. Garon's past drug use. Marijuana should be available to anyone who needs it. Had you gone through the hell I've been through in the past year, I'll bet you'd feel the same way.
there's only one way to find out...
There are no right answers here -- organs are such a rare resource (primarily because people aren't allowed to recoup any economic value from theirs) that the criteria whereby you receive one is very strict.
Now I know what the writeup says, but I suspect what also played a role in Mr. Garon's case was his past history of drug use (which caused his medical problem) and the marijuana was an ancillary point being used by marijuana advocates. This is NOT to say Mr. Garon deserved to die because he made poor choices, but rather, when weighed against someone else who had no past history of making such poor choices - that person got the organ.
What we need to keep in mind is that there are no viable transplant organs being withheld from the drug users of the world and being tossed into garbage bins. The transplant committee exists to ration out an extremely limited resource; because Mr. Garon died, someone else undoubtedly has lived.
I myself advocate the legalisation of pot, but am extremely skeptical that any transplant commitee would have made their decision based on the pot criteria described in the linked articles.
Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.
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Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:19:49 AM EST
4.00 (informative)
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Baseball legend Mickey Mantle received a liver after many years of alcoholism. While his status as celebrity didn't move him up the list, the transplant committee (if there was one) gave him the green light for the operation. Mantle's legendary drinking certainly exacerbated the Hep-C he received from a blood transplant...if not was the primary cause for his liver problems.
I agree with you that the pot use may not have been the determining factor as much as his prior drug use (with needle sharing). It doesn't seem fair somehow that Mantle's drinking gets a pass while Garon's own bad behavior does not. What rankles more is that while Garon's would be liver most likely did go on to someone else, Mantle took his to the grave three months after he got it.
WWGE: Who Would Gordon Enslave?
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:49:31 AM EST
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Two wrongs don't really make a right here, though. Mantle shouldn't have gotten that liver and, given the circumstances, I don't know that Garon should have gotten one either. Priority for transplants should absolutely be given to the youngest and healthiest (and I say that as someone who's overweight - but if I was up against a healthier person, I'd say they should get it, not me) first, and that people who's ingestion of drugs or alcohol substantially contributed to their illness in any way should be put waaaay down at the bottom.
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:02:39 AM EST
4.00 (astute)
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No argument here. In fact, the whole controversy about Mantle's new liver was the basis of my first ever real online argument/flamewar back when I left AOL for a local BBS. I didn't think he should have gotten it then and I still believe that. There is a thread of unfairness here though...celebrity vs. non-celebrity...socially acceptable booze vs. non socially acceptable drug and that's what rankles.
WWGE: Who Would Gordon Enslave?
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Thu May 08, 2008 at 10:18:15 AM EST
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Two wrongs don't really make a right here, though.
I don't really understand how this aphorism applies here. Mantle contracted Hep-C from a blood received during treatment of a sports injury. In other words, the medical community messed up. Granting Mantle a replacement liver can be seen as a partial remedy for harm caused.
Garon, on the other hand, placed himself at risk. By the time the doctors were involved, he already had hepatitis. The only person to fault was Garon himself.
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Thu May 08, 2008 at 10:28:00 AM EST
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I wasn't aware that his liver problems were caused by Hep C. Knowing that, I guess I would like to hear more informed medical opinion about what amount of damage to his liver was caused by drinking and what amount by the Hep C before I made a final judgment call. If it seemed likely that his drinking substantially contributed to his ill health, however, I would still come down on the side of denying him a transplant.
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Thu May 08, 2008 at 10:35:56 AM EST
5.00 (astute)
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If it seemed likely that his drinking substantially contributed to his ill health, however, I would still come down on the side of denying him a transplant.
Well, that's not exactly right - I wouldn't deny anyone a transplant, but anyone with self-contributing factors should, I think, go to the bottom of the list. Since matching is always somewhat difficult, there's still a fair chance that these folks could get a transplant (as long as no "healthier" person was on the list above them), but it would at least prioritize those who most deserve a second chance. We should either do it that way (with one national list, too - none of this "list shopping" garbage - and with the whole process being as absolutely non-profit as possible) or just say fuck the whole thing and allow direct sales of organs for cash. The in-between thing (where many of the actors involved in the transplant process make a ton of money, and where the organ recipient spends a ton of money, but the donor / donor's family makes none) we've got going now is just ripe for abuse and problematic placements.
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 04:48:49 PM EST
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To be fair, that's Mickey Mantle were talking about. I mean come on, doesn't being Mickey Mantle count for something? You put up the type of numbers he did you deserve a liver.
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 05:21:34 PM EST
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You put up the type of numbers he did you deserve a liver.
No you don't. You walk out of this game the hero you maybe once were.
WWGE: Who Would Gordon Enslave?
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 06:28:30 PM EST
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I would stab Mickey Mantle with a dirty broken bottle if I could.
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 06:38:43 PM EST
4.00 (interesting)
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I wonder if the guy who got killed was an organ donor?
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Re: Mickey Mantle
Tue May 06, 2008 at 08:28:58 PM EST
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Maybe the woman who ran him over knew he was and wanted to get Alex Rodriguez the new kidney he'll need from doing all those steroids.
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
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Buried within one of my links ...
Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:01:42 PM EST
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... is a statement from someone at the hospital that they had to factor in Garon's arrest for growing his weed and what conditions he would be recuperating from transplant surgery (i.e., would he be in prison or on probation). Garon claimed the drug use that brought him his case of Hep C came when he was a teenager and he wasn't using anything other than the marijuana recently.
I was scanning the dialog between you and Lou regarding Mickey Mantle downthread. Mantle is, of course, not the only transplant recipient many people thought benefited from his name status. If you remember the former governor of Pennsylvania Robert P. Casey received a heart-liver transplant in 1993 to combat a rare disease he had. Because Casey had not let his condition become public knowledge until right before the operation, there was an outcry over how he managed to go to the top of the transplant list ahead of people who had been waiting for years. It turned out that his name had been on the transplant list for a number of years and he really didn't get bumped up because he was governor.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
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Going to the top of the list
Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:29:58 PM EST
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I saw some other information that I found interesting. It seems that there is more than just one list for organ requests. I thought there was just a national list. I don't know how far the breakdown goes...hospital by hospital, state by state, or region by region. What I did learn though is that you can put your name on any list you have the time and money to get to.
WWGE: Who Would Gordon Enslave?
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Re: Going to the top of the list
Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:40:26 PM EST
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Better start getting on the lists now while I'm still healthy!
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
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Re: Going to the top of the list
Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:42:53 PM EST
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Hospital Administrator: Well now, Rev. Lou. Why do you want to be put on the list for a liver transplant?
Rev. Lou - You see, I'm hitting the bars when I leave here and I'm just trying to be proactive about my health.
WWGE: Who Would Gordon Enslave?
