” He also noted in September 2005 that the ability to prolong the lives of the elderly has “significant implications in terms of population, and in terms of jobs for the next generation.”
That’s the disturbing statement. My mother is 93 years old and thanks to some surgeries over the past 10 years she is healthy and able to live in her own home, clean her house and drive her car to the grocery, church and out to lunch with friends. She is as sharp as a tack. So would good old Ben have denied her those procedures which are allowing her to live a long and happy life?
I think he is looking at a ‘class’ of people who have a health condition that is deteriorating and we’ve invented great science to prolong this deterioration. It’s like being told you are suddenly (out of the blue) in stage four of cancer. There’s treatment that didn’t exist thirty years ago and they can burn through $50,000 of cost in a matter of six weeks to give you that treatment and buy you two to six months of extra time. At some point, you will ask where the $50,000 came from, and it’s from the big pot of money for Medicare and regular insurance.
Science does a lot of things and there’s a price-tag attached to each plus-up.
As long as people have a quality of life, I don’t have much discussion on this topic. It’s when they don’t have a quality of life and science bumps into the issue....giving us options that don’t have much real value unless you had a quality of life attached.
Glad to hear about your mom. Thanks for sharing!