Ethical/Moral Question

When I was learning about organ donation and being placed on the list there were many questions that I dealt with that were hard to answer. One of my readers posed a question about people receiving an organ transplant who seem to have done the damage to themselves. Some examples may be long time smokers or alcoholics who are on the list to receive an organ transplant. Should these people receive a new organ? Below I have posted the question and my response. I would love to hear your thoughts on the issue. I am not expecting everyone to agree with me, but I would like to know the views AND REASONS FOR THEM that are out there.

Czenfan wrote:

It kinda screws my head up about this guys [The crash recipient] lung transplant .. . because he did it to himself... he is taking someone elses lungs because he didnt care enough about his own life of health to just quit smoking.
To me that undermines the reason transplants exist - I feel they should give a renewed quality of life to someone, and not be a license for someone a renewed chance to abuse their new Lungs, or whatever...

Thoughts !?

My response:

This is a sticky situation as I deal with some of these thoughts about alcoholics receiving new livers. I will try to put my same insight on a lung transplant

My thoughts on this situation depend on whether he quit smoking when he found out he had the disease. If not, I really don't see it fair to give it to him when someone else who has tried to take care of themselves has to wait. In this case, him receiving a second chance just doesn't seem fair.

On the other hand, at 50 years old, he was born in ~1957. At that time, smoking was much more common than today without the known and documented risks. I have a hard time faulting him for something that was accepted socially. I would definitely feel different if he was my age and had been told his entire life that smoking will kill you.

Either way, I am happy that he received the transplant! Now it is up to him to show his donor family as well as his would be donor family (due to the crash) that he was worthy of his lungs. He must do this by taking care of himself and his lungs. He will be in the public eye for a while, so time will tell. This is a touchy situation and exactly why I am glad I am not in the position to make the choice about who gets what available organ.

Let me know what you think! I wouldn't mind getting a little discussion started here, just be tactful!