Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez nixed liver transplant, feared donor was gay

Vicente Fernandez, 79, made his comments during an interview with De Primera Mano, a Spanish television station, according to WOAI.

"I'm not going to sleep next to my wife with a liver from another guy," Fernandez told De Primera Mano. "I don't know if he is a homosexual or a drug addict. No, no, no."

Fernandez said he left the hospital after refusing the transplant, despite his doctor pleading with him to stay, the San Antonio Current reported. Fernandez later had a procedure done to remove the cancerous tumor on his liver in Chile, the newspaper reported.
In an interview with El Universal, transplant surgeon Mario Antonio Cardona called Fernandez's statements "an abomination" and irresponsible.

"It's totally absurd and inhumane to think of homosexuality as if it was an infection," Cardona told El Universal. "That a person has a certain social conduct doesn't imply that they can't be a great donor."

Fernandez's website notes that he is to Mexican music "what Hank Williams is to country, B.B. King is to blues and Woody Guthrie is to folk." Ranchera is a genre of traditional Mexican music that is commonly associated with mariachi groups.