I BEG YOU, mighty Jobs, TAKE MY LIVER, Cook told Apple's dying co-founder Apple boss Tim Cook offered part of his liver to dying Steve Jobs, Fast Company exec editor Rick Tetzeli has claimed in his new biography on the Apple co-founder. Encouraged by a rare blood-type match, rather than a liking for fava beans and a nice Chianti, Cook reportedly popped round to see a very ill Jobs, who was bedridden …
This post has been deleted by its author
Unfortunately he's not the only one - how many 'smart' people buy sugar pills that are essentially placebos, do not get their kids vaccinated and believe in sky god(s) even though around 2/3rds+ of the world believes in a different one and they can't all be right...?
So the article I checked to verify the alternative remedies quoted his wife saying Jobs was reluctant to go under the knife for anything, and that that was a large part of the reason why he went for alternative remedies. Going under for a slim chance of drawing things out (which is all he could really have done at this point) was probably out of the question for him
Much as the man irritated me in many ways, it's a bit unfair to criticise Jobs for his decisions about his own life. We all die, eventually, so we're really just arguing about timing, and hands up who hasn't chipped away at their own life-expectancy in one way or another by their decisions?
He didn't want to die (until probably near the end), but again, that's how it is with life. The end will be messy. The best we can hope for is for the last bit of it not to be horrific and to be asleep when the last breath is drawn.
Keep in mind that he got a liver transplant eventually by cheating his way out - getting a new house, in a new state (Memphis) - basically denying someone else life[1].
[1]: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/steve-jobs-liver-transplant-memphis
"and hands up who hasn't chipped away at their own life-expectancy in one way or another by their decisions?"
Chipping away at it - ie taking a small risk - is one thing and is generally an unavoidable part of life unless you want to be constantly double checking every decision you make and eventually going insane. Yeah, perhaps by eating a McD burger I might have a 0.001% increased change of having a heart attack in the next X years but the alternative might be going to a different restaurant and having to cross a road where I have a 0.002% chance of getting run over. Etc.
That is completely different to making a decision that is all or nothing - have the treatment or face 100% certain death in the very near future.
This post has been deleted by its author
You mean, apart from the bit where it mentions the fava beans and chianti...?
"Encouraged by a rare blood-type match, rather than a liking for fava beans and a nice Chianti, Cook reportedly popped round to see a very ill Jobs, who was bedridden with cancer and its side-effects, to offer him a piece of his organ for a life-saving transplant."
Of course... [to paraphrase badly, Rimmer in Red dwarf] ...we've only got Tim Cook's word for it that Steve Jobs turned down the offer of a partial liver transplant. Much easier to say "Steve Jobs made the ultimate sacrifice" than to admit you bludgeoned him to death with a frozen Newton –whilst you're mopping up his gravy with the last of the ship's biscuits.
*[I did say paraphrased "badly"!]*
Having seen that i was beaten to the punch by Tanuki, i attempted to 'Withdraw' my post. The post wasn't withdrawn and has ended up on the thread. Perhaps, being a 'Red-Vulture' badge winner you can have a word with the mods on this site as to why its taking so long for the posts to appear. Up to the start of the week the posts appeared on the thread almost instantly. Now there's a lag from half an hour to half a day......whats up?......or is it just me getting this special treatment:)
Cook would've been well aware of this rule. I suggest this was just a cynical attempt to curry favour with the boss, knowing he'd never actually be at risk of going under the knife.
"Gee, who'd have thought it. I was all ready to give you some of my liver but it turns out I'm not allowed!"
\
{Psychopathic CEO}
The problem was that his liver wasn't the problem - it was his pancreas.
People with advanced pancreatic cancer have a very, very low survival rate less than 4% survive longer than 5 years after diagnosis. That's why they generally don't transplant livers or liver grafts - even if it works, it won't be working for long. Why put another person at risk for very little benefit?
Even worse, he may have refused Cook's liver - but he did game the system to shop around for a state where liver transplants were done for people with advanced pancreatic cancer - and where he could move to the top of the queue quickly. He then bought a house there to establish residency to gain access to the medical system (transplant organs tend to be governed by the state, not by individual hospitals).
I wonder how many poor people with liver diseases could do that...
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
