should we pay for idiocy?

[*ryan777*]

But why should the Government pay for it enwiabe? It's not their fault this lady got addicted to drugs and ruined 2 perfectly good livers. I'm with ninwa; if she can afford to be taking drugs she can afford $500 to save her life.

i dont think enwiabe is saying that, hes saying attention needs to be payed to preventing this from happening in the 1st place, becuase yeah, you dont wake up one day and think "hmmm, i feel like getting addicted to meth today" it just happens over time and once it starts is hard to stop

[stonecold]

^ that starts with K.Rudd taking some initiative and introducing a descent program into schools across the country educating children and teens from a young age about drugs and alcohol.....

and not just fobbing it off to some marketing department to make a few scary looking ads....

[*ryan777*]

^ that starts with K.Rudd taking some initiative and introducing a descent program into schools across the country educating children and teens from a young age about drugs and alcohol.....

and not just fobbing it off to some marketing department to make a few scary looking ads....

hmmm im still sceptical education is as effective as the government wants you to think
as a graduate of a public school in a low socio-economic area ive had hours upon hours of "education" and quite frankly once you leave school no one cares about it (assuming ppl didnt sleep through it all anyway)

the ads however are very confronting and scary and imo get the job done, for example if i had to give two reasons as to why i dont smoke 1 is its too expensive and 2 is the ads scaring me away from stuff like that

[enwiabe]

Cthulhu, what is the monetary value of a life?

[ninwa]

This whole situation makes me really uncomfortable to be honest.

An argument from compassion (like enwiabe's) will obviously say that $500 is a fair price to pay for a life. That hher children need a mother. But can you imagine what kind of mother she would be? I can't imagine that her children would be much better off having a mother who is seriously addicted to drugs, than not having a mother at all.

If we pay for her - where does it stop? What about those other 7 people on the waiting list? Should we pay for them to go overseas in the hope that there is a matching donor over there? What about those 3 who died last year waiting for a liver transplant? what about that homeless guy I walk past every day on the way to work? What about my next door neighbour who I can see gradually wilting away because she has cancer and two young children to support?

It's an unfortunate fact that despite the UN's decree that all humans are equal, supply and demand requires us to make some difficult decisions.

In my view, for a woman who clearly should have known better, who had a second chance to sort herself out (and don't say she was helpless, she is an adult who would have been perfectly capable of checking herself into rehab), if not for the anonymous donor then for her children, and someone who is ill due to no fault of their own who's been waiting for years for a transplant - this is her problem to deal with.

I think it's her children who are the real victims here. (Speaking of which, why was a drug addict allowed to remain in custody of her children?!)

[stonecold]

^ that starts with K.Rudd taking some initiative and introducing a descent program into schools across the country educating children and teens from a young age about drugs and alcohol.....

and not just fobbing it off to some marketing department to make a few scary looking ads....

hmmm im still sceptical education is as effective as the government wants you to think
as a graduate of a public school in a low socio-economic area ive had hours upon hours of "education" and quite frankly once you leave school no one cares about it (assuming ppl didnt sleep through it all anyway)

the ads however are very confronting and scary and imo get the job done, for example if i had to give two reasons as to why i dont smoke 1 is its too expensive and 2 is the ads scaring me away from stuff like that

yeah, the ads are somewhat effective for people like you and me, but others either don't care, or don't believe them.  also the ads do shit all to deter people when they're out with 'friends' and are pressured into doing bad things.

when i say education, i mean making people go to drug rehab centres during school, having past addicts and parents who have lost their kids to drugs come in and talk in person, stuff like that.  not some stupid power point that says 'don't take drugs'

[Cthulhu]

Cthulhu, what is the monetary value of a life?

Obviously there isn't one. But why should the government use tax payer money to fix the mistakes of this women who is apparently ungrateful with the life she has with her kids that she had to turn to drugs to make it better? And don't give me that "blah blah there may have been other factors in her life that turned her to drugs" story. She is an adult she knows what she's doing she is responsible her own actions the government isn't.

Nina has the right idea; If the government can pay for her to go to New Zealand why can't they pay for the other people waiting for liver transplants to go overseas and look for a donor?

The government isn't there to fix the mistakes you made with your life. She was the one that took the drugs the government didn't force her to take them and it was her own fault that she ruined her liver TWICE.

[ninwa]

PERTH woman Claire Murray, whose drug addiction ruined her liver transplant, has flown to Singapore hoping for a "live liver'' transplant operation that could save her life.

TAXPAYERS may have to foot the bill for a dying drug user's flight to New Zealand for life-saving surgery.

The procedure would use a piece of a liver from a living family member, but it is understood that Ms Murray's father is not a compatible donor.

But Dr Hames said the State Government was prepared to pay for her and her father to travel to New Zealand so she could be considered for a "live" liver transplant.

Shoddy reporting or shoddy government? (or both?)

The transplant hope comes thanks to a $258,000 loan from the WA Government.

[midas_touch]

Seems like a case of fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me................