A 31-year-old father in need of a heart transplant has been bumped from the transplant list at Brigham and Women’s Hospital because he won’t get vaccinated against COVID-19, CBS Boston reports. “It’s kind of against his basic principles—he doesn’t believe in it,” David Ferguson told the news outlet of his son, DJ Ferguson. The father of two was at the top of the transplant list until he was removed over his vaccination status, his father said. It was not immediately clear why he was in need of a heart transplant. The hospital released a statement explaining that the vaccine requirement is standard policy, as the jab creates “both the best chance for a successful operation and also the patient’s survival after transplantation.” Arthur Caplan, the head of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, put it more simply: “Post any transplant, kidney, heart whatever, your immune system is shut off. The flu could kill you, a cold could kill you, COVID could kill you. The organs are scarce, we are not going to distribute them to someone who has a poor chance of living when others who are vaccinated have a better chance post-surgery of surviving.”