Happy birthday Michael! Gene
On Sep 24, 2014, at 6:28 PM, Perelman, Michael <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Tom I will be 75 in a week. Although I rarely get medical care, I might > have some need in the future. > > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gar Lipow > Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 4:36 PM > To: Progressive Economics > Subject: Re: [Pen-l] ice floe bioethics - no health care after 75 > > > > On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 12:38 PM, Tom Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > To be fair, the author says, "I am not advocating 75 as the official > statistic of a complete, good life in order to save resources, ration health > care, or address public-policy issues arising from the increases in life > expectancy." As long as he's only talking about his own healthcare choices > and not advocating a policy, I don't see the problem. > > The two policy implications he does outline also seem rather benign -- not > basing evaluation of health care quality on longevity and focusing biomedical > research spending on quality of life rather than radical interventions for > prolongation of life. Given the choice of living 10 more years without > Alzheimer's or living 15 with Alzheimers, I know which one I would chose. > > > > He is not just saying it is something he is personally choosing. He is > saying others who don't make the same choice are making a bad decision for > themelves and for society. He doesn't need to draw malignant policy > conclusion. Once the premises are established, he can leave other other to > advocate the obvious. This is not a slippery slope. It is a goddamn ice > cliff. > > BTW he is overlooking some important medical studies. For example one study > showed that healthy people dies faster than the unhealthy. Not sooner. But > they go from pretty good to dead in a shorter interval, wearing out more like > the wonderful one horse shay, and less like a car getting less and less > reliable. That is a huge argument against his points on antibiotic use and > preventative care. This is not a "slippery slope". This is a goddamn ice > cliff. > > And yeah there are circumstances when I would not want radical intervention > myself. But he is framing it as a duty to self and society, with a nice > simple age cuttoff. > > On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 1:22 AM, Gar Lipow <[email protected]> wrote: > > This proposal to cut off all but palliative healthcare for people over 75 may > be trial balloon, rather than just journalistic trolling. David Roberts said > in his facebook page that he agrees with every word. Ezra Klein tweeted the > link without comment. With Social Security cuts off the table, at least > until 2015, instead of forcing old people to live on cat food, I guess the > "Church of the Savvy" now wants to see if it can turn old people into cat > food instead. > > My mom is 92, and she recently managed to lacerate her shin. The laceration > became infected and is now being treated with antibiiotics. One of the things > this article advocates is no antibiotics for people over 75. > > Ice floe bioethics. We are better off dead after 75, so denying us medical > care from then is for our own good. The fact that it would fatten the profits > of the masters of the universe is merely a happy co-benefit that it would be > in very bad taste to discuss. > > http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/ > > -- > Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow > Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com > Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ > Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > > -- > Cheers, > > Tom Walker (Sandwichman) > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > > -- > Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow > Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com > Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ > Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
