Thanks so much for the feedback, really got me thinking. I feel that this is what I was trying to ask about in the first place because I'm not sure whether in reality doctors consider the personal lives of the patients on the liver transplant list, just the medical stuff, like who has been waiting the longest and who has the best chance of benefiting from the transplant.
So, based on the information that you provided:
I want to base my opinion on the medical facts in the sense of who is going to benefit from this liver transplant, ie. whoever gains the most life years from the transplant, balanced against who has been on the waiting list the longest. I have a problem, personally, with basing my decision on their personal lives because I believe that it is judgmental to make such a huge decision on their personality and actions which I personally disapprove of- for example the single mother allegedly drowning puppies in her bathtub.
THe only involvement that I would have in terms fo their personal lives, is how committed they are to making the correct lifestyle choices and taking care of their new liver, for example the alcoholic deciding to talk about his alcoholism and other problems with a counsellor, so that I can make sure that he is at least committed to taking care of his new liver and that the transplant would have been a success.
In conclusion, these are the steps that I would take:
- Talk to each 'applicant' and gather any informaiton I can in regards to the transplant in determining how each applicant is committed to taking care of their new liver
- Consider how long each applicant has been on the transplant waiting list
- Chances of success: who will gain the most life years and whose body has a higher chance of accepting the new liver and not rejecting it
Therefore, I would balance the above pieces of informaiton to make my decision and not make the decision based on the applicants' personal lives.