Dear Tom I will be 75 in a week. Although I rarely get medical care, I might have some need in the future.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gar Lipow Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 4:36 PM To: Progressive Economics Subject: Re: [Pen-l] ice floe bioethics - no health care after 75 On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 12:38 PM, Tom Walker <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: To be fair, the author says, "I am not advocating 75 as the official statistic of a complete, good life in order to save resources, ration health care, or address public-policy issues arising from the increases in life expectancy." As long as he's only talking about his own healthcare choices and not advocating a policy, I don't see the problem. The two policy implications he does outline also seem rather benign -- not basing evaluation of health care quality on longevity and focusing biomedical research spending on quality of life rather than radical interventions for prolongation of life. Given the choice of living 10 more years without Alzheimer's or living 15 with Alzheimers, I know which one I would chose. He is not just saying it is something he is personally choosing. He is saying others who don't make the same choice are making a bad decision for themelves and for society. He doesn't need to draw malignant policy conclusion. Once the premises are established, he can leave other other to advocate the obvious. This is not a slippery slope. It is a goddamn ice cliff. BTW he is overlooking some important medical studies. For example one study showed that healthy people dies faster than the unhealthy. Not sooner. But they go from pretty good to dead in a shorter interval, wearing out more like the wonderful one horse shay, and less like a car getting less and less reliable. That is a huge argument against his points on antibiotic use and preventative care. This is not a "slippery slope". This is a goddamn ice cliff. And yeah there are circumstances when I would not want radical intervention myself. But he is framing it as a duty to self and society, with a nice simple age cuttoff. On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 1:22 AM, Gar Lipow <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: This proposal to cut off all but palliative healthcare for people over 75 may be trial balloon, rather than just journalistic trolling. David Roberts said in his facebook page that he agrees with every word. Ezra Klein tweeted the link without comment. With Social Security cuts off the table, at least until 2015, instead of forcing old people to live on cat food, I guess the "Church of the Savvy" now wants to see if it can turn old people into cat food instead. My mom is 92, and she recently managed to lacerate her shin. The laceration became infected and is now being treated with antibiiotics. One of the things this article advocates is no antibiotics for people over 75. Ice floe bioethics. We are better off dead after 75, so denying us medical care from then is for our own good. The fact that it would fatten the profits of the masters of the universe is merely a happy co-benefit that it would be in very bad taste to discuss. http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/ -- Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman) _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
