Had Cindy Sheehan’s son been killed while he was doing a tax return in his office for a client or twirling in a pirouette during a performance of “Swan Lake” it would have been a case of murder. Sheehan’s son, however, was a soldier and fighting is what soldiers are meant to do. When they join the army, they have to be prepared to serve wherever and whenever they are needed. They can’t say “Sorry, that place looks too dangerous for me. I prefer to go to Barbados for the weather. Send someone else cause I don’t want to upset my mother.”
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Can’t help thinking that the family whose loved one donated a liver to George Best in 2002 would be feeling that the former football star disrespected the greatest gift that one person can bestow on another. Not long after the transplant, George resumed his alcoholic binges and is now on life-support.

Donor families aren’t told who receives the organs but this must be a step-back for the donor cause. Most likely, there was another person in need of a liver who would have treated the transplant with the care it deserved. The donation would have represented a second chance at life for those poor souls who missed out in favour of the celebrity.

So what happened instead? George trashed it.

I firmly believe that George has every right to do whatever damage he wants to his own body, but in this case, isn’t there a moral responsibility to the donor?

I was under the impression that recipients are vetted for more than just organ compatiblity. Surely they should undertake to change their ways following a transplant, not just for themselves but as a gesture to other would-be donors who wonder if their gift could also be wasted.