On his deathbed, Gary Reinbach pleaded with his mother, “Please help me Mum, I don’t want to die.”  

Those were the 22-year-old’s last words.  In the UK, a place that advocates of socialized medicine praise as an example of what a compassionate modern society should do with health care, there wasn’t anything Gary’s mother could do.  Her son was denied a transplant, and when the government controls health care and they say no to your treatment, you die. 

Gary Reinbach (22), on his deathbed being comforted by his mother.

Gary’s story is a sad one, stretching back to his parent’s divorce when he was 11 years old.  He started binge drinking then, and by the time he was 22 his liver could no longer take it.  In the hospital with a diagnosis of terminal cirrhosis of the liver, Reinbach was told that he would have to prove that he could stay alcohol-free for six months before he would be eligible for a transplant.  Of course, Reinbach was so ill he couldn’t be discharged from the hospital.  He was dead within 10 weeks.

Some might argue that it is reasonable to withhold an organ from someone who is likely to continue a pattern of self-destructive behavior.  They may be correct, in the case of cadaveric organs.  Cadaveric organs are rare and waiting lists are long.  That isn’t the case with organs such as kidneys and livers.  The human liver is a remarkable organ; a living donor can give a portion of their liver and within a matter of months that liver will have re-grown to its original size.  If Gary had received a cadaveric organ, someone else would have died on the waiting list.  If Gary had found a living donor, he would have survived, and no one else would have died.  Gary would have been given a second chance at sobriety—and life!

No media reports make mention of Gary’s attempts to find a liver donor, because in the compassionate socialized health care system of the UK, it wouldn’t have mattered.  A simple procedure that could have saved Gary’s life simply didn’t fit the compassionate socialist algorithm, and now his family is left grieving.

Gary’s parents will never get to see him graduate from university or get married, they’ll never know the grandchildren they might have had.  Gary’s family will spend the rest of their lives mourning his premature and preventable death.

This is the reality of socialized medicine.  The compassion its supporters laud as its basis leaves nothing but death and destruction in its wake.  This is the road down which President Obama is leading America.  We have a choice:  follow like sheep to slaughter or fight back and demand freedom.

Health care in America has problems, but they pale in comparison to those of countries burdened with government health care.  We can make real reforms that lead to lower cost and higher quality care being delivered to more Americans, or we can goose-step along with Obama, and see cases like Gary’s occur over and over across the USA.