An Ontario widow has filed a constitutional challenge of a provincial policy requiring alcoholics to be sober for six months before they can get a liver transplant, five years after her husband鈥檚 death from liver failure.
Debra Selkirk鈥檚 husband Mark died in 2010, after he was refused a liver transplant. Ontario鈥檚 organ and tissue donation agency, the Trillium Gift of Life Network, requires patients with alcohol-related liver failure to be six months sober before they are put on the transplant list.
Selkirk says she was willing to give Mark a piece of her own liver, but because he had only been sober for six weeks, doctors in Toronto wouldn鈥檛 consider it.
Last week, Selkirk filed a constitutional challenge in court against the six-month wait policy, arguing that it discriminates against people who are struggling with alcoholism and violates Canada鈥檚 Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
鈥淎s Canadians, we have the right to health care regardless of the providence of our disease,鈥� Selkirk told CTV鈥檚 Canada AM Tuesday.
, Selkirk notes that alcohol addiction is considered a disability under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
After her husband鈥檚 death, Selkirk initially told herself that he was finally at peace. But after researching liver transplant outcomes for alcoholics, she says she believes that Mark could be alive today, if he鈥檇 had a transplant in 2010.
Selkirk cites a which concluded that only about six per cent of former alcoholics relapse after an organ transplant.
She told Canada AM that other studies over the years have reached similar conclusions and that there is no scientific basis for Trillium鈥檚 six-month wait policy.
鈥淢ark has been gone for 5 years. If he had been transplanted, there鈥檚 a 78 to 92 per cent chance he would be alive today and maybe a six to eight per cent chance he would be drinking,鈥� she said.
The idea that transplant patients with addiction problems 鈥渨aste鈥� organs is false, Selkirk said. And she rejects the notion that transplants should be prioritized based on the type of disease the patient has.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not about competition among diseases. The sickest patient gets the organ,鈥� she said.
In the weeks leading up to her husband鈥檚 death, he was among the sickest patients in need of a transplant, Selkirk said.
鈥淎nd there was no reason that he couldn鈥檛 have been saved.鈥�
The Trillium Gift of Life Network said it could not comment on the case because it鈥檚 still before the courts.
