Even many of my friends could not agree to the happening that some expensive treatment could only be given (alas, affordable) to those more affluent patients.
"All men are equal." What a noble declaration.
Oh, that would mean all men should also have the same food - nutrition is important for any disease. Why should this rich man have bird's nest and wagyu while I have to be a "social vegetarian" ?
"No, food is not a life-saving measure; the drug is." You may argue.
That's a romantic idea. More people die everyday because of famine than the lack of any particular medicine. After all, how many drugs are 100% fool-proof life-saving and therefore absolutely necessary ? Less than a handful. (I can only name 50% dextrose for hypoglycemia, vitamin B12 for megaloblastic anemia, and possibly thiamine for Wernicke's encephalopathy.)
And for many of the new pharmacological gadgets, we talk about the relative risk reduction. Is that anything qualitatively different from your bird's nest ?
"There's a quantitative difference ! This monoclonal antibody reduce your risk of death by 10%; the bird's nest is at best 0.0001%."
Then who is going to judge what cut off should be used to define a necessary treatment ? Mollusks from Pluto ?
*****************
If you come to agree with the suggestion that all men should have the same food, then we are forced to the conclusion that we should also have the same house (a similar topic has been seriously discussed in our legislative council), clothes, travel vehicle, and income.
And we should all have the same value - assigned by the government.
That's The Road to Serfdom.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
1 comment:
I think "all men are equal" is one of the biggest lie we ever came across. But before one has acquired the wisdom to handle the reality comfortably, one should better off just stick with it in faith.
Post a Comment