Oh, to be as perfect as a Daily Mail reader (as they condemn young man to die)
I don’t know why I bother sometimes. I’ve just read about 22 year old Gary Reinbach who has died of cirrhosis of the liver after being refused a transplant because he couldn’t demonstrate that he would stay off the drink after he left hospital.
Of course he couldn’t prove it – he was already dying!
So, the NHS gods consulted the oracle and went by the letter of the law and not the spirit – and left him to die. 22 years old and not given a second chance because he was pre-judged without any evidence.
I read the comments under the article in the Daily Mail, presuming that there would be an uproar at the needless death of this young man. This is what I read:
There must be a more deserving patient requiring the transplant, give it to them.
No sympathy, it is self inflicted. Let someone who will look after a transplant have it.
There are others out there more deserving. Sorry, I know that is harsh, but so is life.
He doesn’t deserve a new liver.
Sorry….But anything that is self inflicted gets no sympathy from me.
George Best was a waste of a nice new liver, and this guy will be too.
…and then there’s this particularly pompous contribution.
No sympathy from me, and I’ve been a daily drinker since my teens. The difference is that my elders reminded me when to stop.
I think this hard-heartedness is probably due to the conditioning people have received that has made them unable to distinguish between the person and the behaviour.
They think in terms of ‘those filthy smokers’, ‘obese burger-binging slobs’ and ‘drunken bums’. They are likely to view the unborn as just some cells.
They are human beings!
Not that you’d know it by reading the judgmental verbal vomit spewed up on the Daily Mail’s website.
I left a comment on the Mail a couple of years ago to the effect that we are all sinners. One irate woman replied with something like – ‘excuse me, Stewart Cowan – I am not a sinner so speak for yourself’.
So, Daily Mail readers – just present a copy of today’s paper at the hospital reception and it should entitle you to jump to the front of the queue for treatment. Actually, if you’re so perfect, how come you’re in hospital?
Given that Daily Mail hypocrisy winds you up, you may enjoy
Buff the Banana with Paul Dacre
It offers Daily Mail titillation without the other stuff
Right on the money Stewart. We’ve had exchanges before about my friend who served in the RAF for 13 years then went gradually further and further downhill when he left – hit the booze harder and harder – and is now, at 51, very frail and very poorly indeed, living on £65 a week.
Self-inflicted? No. I think inflicted by a heartless society who treat with contempt those who have served their country with honour.
I remember, Jim. I too was afflicted for about a decade and by the grace of God came through it to become what I am today, which is not a lot, but I have a successful wee business that I started with £400.
My own story proves that people deserve another chance. I guess I’ve had a lot more than merely a *second* chance, but hopefully I am learning with each ‘regeneration’!