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In reply to the discussion: I'm Confused. So, When Is It OK to Shoot Someone in the Back on the Street? [View all]MineralMan
(148,450 posts)I'm afraid I don't have a good answer, though. Cases in court do go in favor of the patient. Not always, but it does happen. We don't hear about those.
I doubt that any CEO has much to do with individual cases. Typically, decisions are made according to some set of criteria. The CEO might have some hand in what those criteria are, but I can't imagine that they ever deal with individual cases.
One of the problems with health care is that outcomes can't be predicted with very good accuracy. Often, decisions about what treatments to use or not use are pretty arbitrary, at every level of health care. Will the new, very expensive, medication solve the problem? No way to tell without trying it. There are statistics, but each case is an individual one. Will some heroic surgery save the patient's life? It might, but it might not. Again, some statistical data are used to make those decisions as well, both at the clinical and insurance level.
The problem is that we humans get sick and we die. Sometimes, treatment can extend a life. Sometimes that is a good thing for the patient, but sometimes it merely extends someone's misery. Often, decisions are made that appeal mostly to family members, rather than to the actual patient. Other times, the patient is unable to make a well-informed decision. That's just the way it is in human medical treatment.
As you say, murder is not OK. Personally, I believe that it is never OK. But, that's just my own ethical belief. Every day, some rather large number of people die. Some of those might live a little longer with heroic treatment. Some might get past a health crisis and get a little more time. Some want that, but others do not. It's all a matter of how people look at things and what their expectations are.
So, there is no good answer to the question. People get sick. People die. Some people get a reprieve from death through medical care. Others do not. We have a strange system in the USA. We pay for our own medical insurance in most cases, or our employer does, or the government does. In other countries, everyone is covered by a government-paid system of health care. That is paid through taxes in some way or another. In the end we all pay for it in both systems.
Government-paid health care systems also have algorithmic rules that say yes or no to treatment methods. Decisions get made about individual cases. Those decisions do not always lead to a return to health. Sometimes the patient dies, but everyone dies at some point.
That might sound like a cold-blooded answer, but it's just reality. There is no health care system that can prolong life indefinitely. So, there will always be questions about individual cases.
It's not fair. Life's not fair.
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