Nothing is a better indicator of a sick society than the willingness to deny medical care based on personal moral, religious, or political judgments instead of medical need. Denying available medical care to others based on hate, personal preferences or religious dogma is an evil that comes with scarce resources or the rise of moral extremism.
It is an indicator that the temperature of a society is way too high.
The individuals who advocate denial of care do not advocate denial of care to their own. Why not deny care to wealthy alcoholics who have drunk driving convictions? What about their own relatives or cronies who practice hate, commit terrible crimes or are drug addicts? The truth is that the advocates will find a way to exempt their own while they impose their ideas on others.
When Americans start to throw out ideas about denying medical procedures to others, Americans must accept it when they are denied the same medical procedures. Everyone has or does something that damages the heart. Eventually, the list can become so long that no one would qualify for coronary bypasses
Apparently, being a woman is a factor in denial of coronary artery bypass surgery. According to HeartHealthy Women,
“Despite the fact that both women and men benefit from the use of IMA grafts, women who undergo bypass surgery are less likely to receive an IMA graft than men. In one large trial, 85% of men and only 72% of women received them… This difference could not be explained by factors such as age or other health problems.”
Up to now, personal irritants like smoking, being obese, or being a woman were not death penalty offenses. Killing by denial of available care is a symptom of a society that cannot manage its economy.
Of course, the advocates of this idea will be the first ones to exempt their own heavy smoking friends and obese family members. The next step will be to push for cutting public funding for such life saving procedures. This will allow the truly overcompensated and selfish to insure that they get theirs while denying others.
And it is clear that selfish motives are afoot. Far too many people are left out of the equation. Why not deny scarce medical resources to wealthy drug addicts, risk addicted skateboarders, serial killers, backyard wrestlers, tobacco chewers, white collar criminals, well-to-do alcoholics, anorexics, and thrill seekers who engage in hazardous, risky or unhealthy behaviors?
It is the final symptom of a sick society when advocating death through denial based on any non medical justification. It is the final symptom of a sick society when there is a cold blooded willingness to casually sacrifice the lives of the many while keeping the best resources for the selfish and unworthy few.
