Who Gets A Heart?!

I love ethical quandaries. An ethical quandary a situation or problem in which the right solution is not always obvious but subject to your own reasoning. This story is the epitome of what an ethical quandary is.

Here are the facts:

1. In 2013, then-15-year-old Anthony Stokes was dying and desperately needed a heart transplant that he could not  get because, according to doctors, he had “a history of noncompliance.”

2. Stokes’s family suspected that his low grades and a history of  trouble with the law gave doctors  reason to believe that he would not be willing to take his medicine or show up at subsequent  doctor’s visits. The Georgia teen’s story sparked outrage, and the hospital quickly reversed its decision, giving him priority on the transplant list.

3.Two years later, after he received a transplant, Stokes’s “second chance” has come to an abrupt end.

4.Tuesday afternoon, Stokes died after a stolen vehicle he was driving jumped a curb, hit a pedestrian  and collided with a pole in a car chase with police.

Obviously the doctor's were right about Stokes, but should suspected irresponsibility automatically disqualify anybody from receiving the medical care that they desperately need? After all, there is no way that the doctors could have known for sure that this young man would not take his medicine or meet such a tragic end. Should doctor's or institutions have the right to decide who is worthy of receiving transplants or any other kind of medical care? Does the fact that this young man was a child make a difference? What level of responsibility did the parents have, considering the fact that Stokes was so young. He was 17 when he died. 

My opinion:

When doctors, institutions, or any other kind of authority begin to take liberties in reference to quality of life issues it becomes a slippery slope because the decision making is going to involve some level of personal bias, proclivity, or tendency. God has no respect of persons, but man does. That is exactly why man has no right to play God. But with that being said, the fact that Stokes was allowed to squander his second chance at life is insane. Yes, I said ALLOWED, and I'll ask the same question I always ask when some child has run a muck and has terrorized the community. Where were this boy's parents. They fought for him to have life. But they didn't fight for him to live.

PR