The Limits of Debate

The Liberal Democrat spokesbeing for the Olympics, reality television and football has just discovered that heavy drinkers tend to suffer from liver problems, and that a larger percentage of liver transplants went to people with alcohol-related problems last year than the year before. The Observer calls the result "a furious row".

The chairman of the BMA's ethics committee said that surgeons can refuse to carry out transplants on alcoholics if they don't show that they are willing to look after themselves better. A parental rent-a-quote provided the simple solution in which those convenient entities specialise: "If there are two people side by side wanting a liver, and both have the right tissue match, and one is an alcoholic and one isn't, there's no contest - you take the one who's not an alcoholic, they are more entitled". The surgeon who gave George Best a new liver stated that "if you knew someone was going to be recidivist, you wouldn't take them on for a transplant", and a spokesbeing for the NHS authority which oversees transplants said that the patient's surgeon assesses whether the customer "is fit physically and is able to cope with the rigours of living after a transplant."

For a furious row, this all sounds jolly civilised. Nobody said, for instance, that alcoholics have as much right to transplants as anyone else who may happen to be first in the queue. Nobody said that dental treatment should be prioritised for those who, according to the relevant national database, brush twice a day and avoid sugar. Nobody said that organ donation to save lives ought to be a social duty, like driving carefully or living sustainably, whatever the peculiar scruples of those who believe their omnipotent Deity incapable of resurrecting a body that has been dissected rather than burned or eaten. Nobody mentioned that scientific research using human embryos might be of help. Nobody dared whisper that Britain's "binge drinking culture" might be related to any other aspect of British culture, including some that were quite respectable until recently. The Liberal Democrat spokesbeing for the Olympics, reality television and football thinks that "we have to look again at raising the price of the cheapest alcohol", which will do wonders thanks to the famous rationality of the typical drug addict in prioritising his expenses.