According to official figures there has been a sharp increase in the number of liver transplants in people who are heavy drinkers due to their own organs getting damaged due to alcohol misuse. This revelation sparked off a debate about the ethics of people with alcohol problems receiving organs.

The figures reveal that transplants in the case of heavy drinkers have gone up by more than 60 % in the past decade and in December 1997, 180 people in the U.K. were on the waiting list for a liver transplant as compared to 325 in 2008.

Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the British Medical Association's medical ethics committee, said surgeons were within their rights to refuse transplants to people who need transplants due to alcohol related disease and do not seem genuine about quitting.

"Organs are precious resources and should be used where the clinical outcome - the patient's health - justifies the use of something so scarce," Calland said. "You have to have very definite evidence that the person is going to stop drinking. If someone won't promise, you could refuse them the transplant on clinical rather than ethical grounds."

Britain is facing an increase of alcohol related problems and a report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine two years ago suggested that deaths from cirrhosis of the liver were rising faster in Britain than anywhere else in Europe.

Since 1997/98 approximately 1,300 people suffering from alcoholic liver disease have received new livers which are 18 % of the total number of patients benefiting from the transplants. Health minister Ann Keen released figures that showed that the number of liver transplant cases involving damage caused by alcohol rose from 94 in 1997/98 to 151 in 2007/08, an increase from 14 % to 23 % of the number treated annually over that period.

Liberal Democrat culture spokesman Don Foster called for an increase in the price of the cheapest form of alcohol to stop it being sold at "pocket money prices". He said, "These figures are a stark warning about the impact alcohol is having on health services in this country. Britain's binge-drinking culture is causing serious long-term health problems for an ever-increasing number of people.

"This Government has made endless pronouncements about tackling alcohol misuse but has failed to take any real action. Ministers are sitting on their hands while irresponsible retailers continue to sell alcohol at pocket money prices.

"We need a radical new approach to the alcohol-related problems in this country. Parents, young people, and the alcohol industry must all play their part if we're to have any hope of dealing with the country's binge-drinking problem.

"Recent studies have proven that the cheaper alcohol is, the more people drink. None of us want to pay more for our alcohol, but with this crisis on our hands we have to look again at raising the price of the cheapest alcohol."