AIDS Activist Undergoes Liver Transplant Surgery

Houston Chronicle ^ | December 24, 2001

[bayourod]

PITTSBURGH -- AIDS activist, author and playwright Larry Kramer underwent liver transplant surgery and was listed in serious condition Monday.

Kramer's doctors said his condition was improving and was about where it should be after the 12-hour surgery Friday.

Kramer, 66, spent seven months on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's waiting list. He moved to Pittsburgh in early November to wait for an organ to become available. While many transplant centers oppose the surgery for HIV-positive patients, UPMC's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute has performed 10 liver transplants on HIV-positive patients since 1997. Eight of the patients have survived. Kramer's HIV has been relatively well controlled, but he suffered from end-stage liver failure caused by hepatitis B.

[DWSUWF]

"...When did I argue IN FAVOR of forced organ donation?..."

That's the problem... I don't follow you around out there at the sheltered workshop* all day, listening to you talk with your co-workers as you sort broken anvils from glass bottles. (*Did I guess right?)

All I 'know' is that you're this really weird guy with a short fuse where it comes to organ donation... (shrug)

"...If I have never argued in favor of forced organ donation and have consistently stated my opposition to forced organ donation (Am I going slow enough for you?), then how can you conclude that I support forced organ donation?..."

See, you spout all this stuff and expect me to just take it at face value, Peep. You know that I can't do that.

If you tell me that the sun is yellow, and that it rises in the east, I'm going to have to have someone reliable double-check you, buddy. Your creditability is in the crapper at this point.

Let's leave it at this...

Something about the way you express yourself makes me doubt that you've been completely candid regarding your agenda. I just don't trust you to be 'forthcoming'.

[philetus]

"Because I find his reasoning so repulsive, I have been trying to persuade him to change his mind on the organ donor program"

You find HIS reasoning repulsive, so he is wrong.

From reading your posts, I believe, IF you had the power, you would compel him to submit to your beliefs.

[philetus]

Now we see your true agenda.

[DWSUWF]

"...Why? Because of the tone of my messages? Because I support the organ donor program?..."

No. Because there's something about you that's creepy.

[GussiedUp]

Okay, how do you define stalking?

Man you are REALLY hung up on that guy aren't you? Why don't you just send him an Freepmail and be done with it...although I suspect you might not like the answer (but I'd PAY to read it! HA HA HA)

[philetus]

You find HIS reasoning repulsive, so he is wrong. Exactly. Seems fairly logical to me. If you do not like the underlying reasoning of an argument, then you are not going to like the conclusion.

If he is WRONG then we must agree with your arguments ergo he should be willing to donate organs regardless of the recepient.

[DWSUWF]

"...Man you are REALLY hung up on that guy aren't you? Why don't you just send him an Freepmail and be done with it...although I suspect you might not like the answer (but I'd PAY to read it! HA HA HA)...

LOL!

I reserve the right to cut and paste any and all Freepmail missives to me to the thread involved, at my discretion.

I'm a 'sunshine' kinda guy who believes that bad stuff takes root hidden in the dark...

[Thommas]

This has been a fine post. I commend you for your humor and creative debate. I would like to add that Mr. bopeep's attitude on organ transplants is weird in that he seems to believe that this is such a wonderful charity.

I see it as a frivolous luxury that one can participate in, or not, according to ANY whim. Our ability to extend or curtail the lives of others is marginal and futile in its hubrous. As you have noted, we all die. The time we spend in this mortal plain is so minimal that to protract it in some frankenstein fashion borders on the macabre.

Finally, Mr. bobeep claims many things that are counterintuitive to conservative thought, i.e., 1) his fear of mortality, 2) his rabid defense of liberals, 3) his own god complex evinced by the desire to save the immoral, and (at least) 4) his inability to cogitate any strong and definitive differences in the morality of a political conservative and political liberal.

I may not agree with you on all things, but so far I see nothing on which to agree with Mr. bopeep.

[Slyfox]

I can't decide if liver transplants for HIV-infected indiviuals is better or worse
than HIV-infected men in South Africa raping babies for a supposed cure.

[DWSUWF]

I appreciate your remarks.

[Mulder]

Two words: Eugene Tooms

It's amazing what an internet keyword search on "liver" and "stalking" will yield. The following is a storyline from an Xfiles episode and was found at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/7366/Tooms.html

Who is Eugene Tooms?

Very little is known about the background of Tooms. He appears to be in his mid thirties, but he has appeared that way since 1903, which was also the year which he moved into 66 Exeter Street in Baltimore, MD. Also in that year he began killing people, sneaking into their houses or offices through a tight space, such as a ventilation shaft, and ripping out their livers. He would then take a personal trophy from them, and after doing this to five people, the livers would provide him enough nutrients to hibernate for 30 years. He first ran into trouble in 1963, when Detective Frank Briggs started to catch on to him. But he was still successful, and went into hibernation for the next 30 years. His real trouble began in 1993, when he was investigated by Mulder and Scully, who began to catch on that he was a genetic mutant. They investigate his apartment, which has been long abandoned, and find a huge cocoon made of newspaper and bile, and the trophies from his victims....

[DWSUWF]

All of us have been thinking it...

But you had to go and say it...

Well, I'm ready.

MOLON LIVER !

Or is it...

LIVER LABE !

Whatever…

[Mulder]

MOLON LIVER ! Or is it... LIVER LABE !

LOL!

If some liver-munchkin ever tries to "harvest" my liver without my consent, he's going need a lot more than a new liver before it's all over.