An American heart patient has been removed from the transplant list because he refuses to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.

"The vaccine goes against his principles, he just doesn't believe in it," David Ferguson, father of patient DJ Ferguson, told CBS.

The vaccine refuser was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, at the end of November.

Ferguson suffers from a congenital condition that causes fluid to build up in the heart and lungs.

Because the 31-year-old's heart stopped working independently, the hospital put him on the transplant list.

After Ferguson refused the requested corona vaccination, Brigham and Women's Hospital now removed him from the list.

In addition to abstaining from tobacco and alcohol, as well as other requirements regarding age and previous illnesses, the hospital, like most other medical facilities in the United States, now requires vaccinations against the corona virus before the procedure. New York University medical ethicist Arthur Caplan told CBS that vaccination is necessary before transplantation because the procedure temporarily paralyzes the patient's immune system.

“Donor organs are rare.

So we can't give them to someone with a slim chance of survival," Caplan said.

In the United States alone, nearly 110,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant.

Ferguson's wife Heather Dawson, the mother of his two children, is now considering transferring the heart patient to another hospital.

For the time being, her husband is too weak for the transport.