Platt
Would you please keep your 'Death Panel' propaganda away from the MD list.
We've been over this in the past and there is no need to bring this sort
of nonsense into the discussion.
If you have concerns about this then there should be no problem in
raising these concerns without the need to resort to this sort of
emotive nonsense.
All that will happen is that there will be a shouting match about 'Death
Panels', nothing will be gained or resolved and I will have to step in
and halt the conversation (which I will do) after much time and energy
is wasted.
Horse
On 13/09/2010 15:35, [email protected] wrote:
All:
In a conversation reported in the Guardian.uk scientists David Attenborough and
Richard Dawkins were asked, "What is the most difficult ethical dilemma facing
science today:?
"DA: How far do you go to preserve individual human life?
RD: That's a good one, yes.
DA: I mean, what are we to do with the NHS? How can you put a value in pounds,
shillings and pence on an individual life? There was a case with a bowel cancer
drug -- if you gave that drug, which costs several thousand pounds, it
continued life for six weeks on. How can you make that decision?"
How would the MOQ make that decision? There's no direct answer that I can find
in Pirsig's writings. I presume that if the patient was of sound mind and, from
his past history, could potentially offer something of intellectual value
during the remaining six or so weeks of his life, he should receive the drug.
Otherwise, the social value of his life would rule which, as the Giant would
judge, isn't worth a pence. Biologically the poor soul would be best recycled.
What's really horrendous about the question is that in the NHS and now
potentially in the U.S. such questions are all too real with life and death
decisions in the hands of a government committee, i.e., a death panel. I don't
know about you, but the thought of my government determining whether I live or
die makes me sick. It's as if Joe Stalin was resurrected.
When you surrender such personal decisions to the government, not only is your
life threatened, but DQ, the creative force of evolution, dies, too. Perhaps,
the MOQ answer is just that -- take responsibility for your own life so DQ can
flourish.
The interview is at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/11/science-david-attenborough-
richard-dawkins
Regards,
Platt
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
--
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines
or dates by which bills must be paid."
— Frank Zappa
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
