So it is certain death without treatment in all cases? My, you are omniscient.
I dont think that anywhere in medicine, anything is 100% either way, tho I think there are probably some exceptions...a severely lacerated spleen, unless surgically repaired, will cause the patient to bleed to death...someone who has gone through all the preliminary chemo and radiation, prior to receiving a bone marrow transplant, and then suddenly decides not to receive the new marrow, will die...a burst appendix, causing peritonitis to spread through the body, will cause someone to die...
But for so many cases, docs always give statistics, percentages which indicate ones chances at survival, or cure...and often, those statistics are the gauge that people use to decide whether or not they want a particular treatment...whether the treatment itself is worth the chance at a cure...this much would be obvious...
Most doctors I have known, have shied away from making a 100% claim, always holding out the possibility, that even tho in their minds they might believe something is 100% one way or the other, they concede that perhaps there is a chance, tho quite minutely small, that someone will beat the odds...anecdotal cases of this are always heard of, where someone miraculously recovers from something that was thought to be impossible...
It makes no difference to me at all, if someone refuses to accept a type of medical treatment...its their body, its their decision...no one has a right to interfere in that...
I never said, I would advocate forcing medical treatment on someone elses child....I just cringe, when I think of a child, who dies because of lack of medical treatment...
I knew you were going to say that! ;?)
No, my friend, I don't live in a binary world of absolutes. Drunk driving is not a crime because it results in CERTAIN death. It just imposes a risk of injury or death (a higher risk of injury or death if you want to get technical) upon innocent people who have not made that choice. I think any rational person can see an analogous situation in the withholding of life-saving medical treatment.