Posted on 05/05/2005 12:01:28 PM PDT by kjvail
y mother’s doctor is refusing to give her antibiotics,” the caller told me in an urgent voice.
I asked why.
“He says that she’s ninety-two and an infection will kill her sooner or later, so it might as well be this infection.”
As disturbing as this call was, as outrageous the doctor’s behavior, I wasn’t particularly surprised. I have been receiving such desperate calls with increasing frequency for the last several years. Not every day. Not every week. But with sufficient regularity to know that something very frightening is happening to American medical ethics.
(Excerpt) Read more at newpantagruel.com ...
Don't you just love how the left uses its cleverly manufactured cliches, like "sustainable development" and "sustainable medicine," to smokescreen its hideous objectives?
- knightshadow.
Welcome to the lower reaches of the Slippery Slope.
That was an impressive argument for all lives not being equal. I hope it doesn't come to that in healthcare where there simply isn't enough money in the economy to go around..
You have to prioritize. Do you know how the system works now? I am honestly asking too, I don't know how it does.
> We are talking about elderly, infirm or incapacitated individuals who presumably have committed no crime or made war on anyone. You are side stepping the issue.
No, I'm not. Some lives are more valuable than others. Anyone who would sacrifice himself for another is someone who is making that determination. Anyone forced to make a choice to save one life or the other is making a value determination.
> Did you really mean to use that phrase
Yes. Compared to the outright Communism expressed by many on this thread ("from each according to my need for them to pay to keep me alive forever"), I figured it was fair.
> We do not need to ration antibiotics.
Are you *insane*? Rationing antibiotics is *vital.* Not because antibiotics are rare... but because the little bacterial bastards are evolving immunity to most of them. Handing out antibiotics like candy is going to make antibiotics *worthless*.
Was a time when penecillin was a wonder-drug. What is it good for *now*? When was the most recent antibiotic developed? When will the next one be? How many millions will die of otherwise preventable infections tomorrow to briefly extend the life of someone today?
You're serious, aren't you? That's scary.
There is a difference between rationing, and using them sparingly. What you're suggesting is lunacy.
> That's scary.
Yes, it is scary. Look into what has happened with bacterial resistance to antibiotics due to the vast over-use of 'em.
> What you're suggesting is lunacy.
What I'm suggesting is using antibiotics when they are needed and when they'll do good. How is that lunacy? Or are you an advocate of speeding up the process of human evolution by using antibiotics at every turn, producing new strains of deadly resistant bacteria, wiping out the utility of antibiotics, and causing a major die-off of humans and other mammals?
Hello? What's scary is the fact that you're serious. The imaginary things you're afraid of aren't scary to me.
Let's see if I can dumb this down a little so you can understand it. You're mistaken in your belief that "using sparingly" means "using at every turn." I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, but I don't think I really want to delve too deeply into the criminally insane mind.
> The imaginary things you're afraid of aren't scary to me.
Imaginary, huh?
http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/community/
http://whyfiles.org/038badbugs/
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/795_antibio.html
"Antibiotic resistance spreads fast. Between 1979 and 1987, for example, only 0.02 percent of pneumococcus strains infecting a large number of patients surveyed by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were penicillin-resistant. CDC's survey included 13 hospitals in 12 states. Today, 6.6 percent of pneumococcus strains are resistant, according to a report in the June 15, 1994, Journal of the American Medical Association by Robert F. Breiman, M.D., and colleagues at CDC. The agency also reports that in 1992, 13,300 hospital patients died of bacterial infections that were resistant to antibiotic treatment."
Perhaps you should read more.
> I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, but I don't think I really want to delve too deeply into the criminally insane mind.
Stay away from mirrors and self-examination, then.
You obviously don't understand plain English. Where did you get the idea that using antibiotics sparingly will cause a major die-off of humans and other mammals?
I don't think I can dumb down far enough to get through to you.
Where did you get the idea that we're using antibiotics sparingly?
What an idiot. You don't even understand what you said, let alone what I said.
> What an idiot.
This is as good as it gets with you and discourse, isn't it.
Whatever. Live in ignorance.
Well teach me, oh great master! Tell me why it's so important to deny antibiotics to all the uber-elder and Lebensunwertes Leben.
Is this what you're trying to tell me? Geben Sie nicht zur ungeeigneten Leutenahrung, -wasser oder -antibiotika.
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