I completely agree that alcoholism is a disease, and as with any other disease, we have to look at the survivability if she got the transplant.

Let's be honest, while the article tries to be favourable to the patient, you can piece together the facts and see that her odds weren't good. While she's been sober since she got the diagnosis, it appears she was immediately hospitalised which tells us she was in very rough shape and has only been sober while in the hospital. Even if she was able to stay sober, it looks like the odds with a partial transplant aren't great.

Some could consider it a mental disorder.

Compared to an autoimmune disease that attacks organs and glands, I'd think the autoimmune patient should be top of the list. Probably good that I'm not on death panels though.

It is, or at the very least is a symptom of another one. I have all kinds of addiction issues which is why I must be super careful in my life. I am a former alcoholic who used to drink nearly every day from basically after work until I was too tired to keep going. I also have ADHD and possibly ASD (the latter not officially diagnosed as of now). There seems to be some evidence that those can play a role in addiction.