Should smokers and the obese be denied coronary artery bypass surgery?
Sure, and women who produce babies that are abnormal in any way should have to pay their own hospital bills if they went against the drinking, smoking, eating right, vitamin regime, and so on. Let’s get real here! Who gives anyone the right to decide how someone else should live their lives? Who gives anyone the right to choose who gets medical treatment and who doesn’t?
Should people who were driving under the influence not receive medical care when they trash their cars? Should those who drink not have their insurance pay for any kind of liver problem they may end up with? Should diabetics who overindulge in something sweet just be left to the coma result? Should we fore-go further research on AIDS or skin cancer because we don’t agree with the lifestyle some of those victims lived?
I pay for my insurance. I’m not a smoker or a drinker to any degree. But I pay through the nose for my insurance and I believe it ought to cover anything and everything that may go wrong with this old body. My weight is my problem, not some “holier than thou” bystander who feels that he’s “above” those people who may be overweight or overwrought. Not everyone is made to have a perfect body or a perfect mind. Those who believe they deserve more in life because they are slim, eat health foods, never smoke, are really living in their own little dream world. And they are welcome to it. Personally, I have enough in my day running my own life without trying to make people run theirs the way I’d wish.
Who is anyone to judge how someone else chooses to live their lives? Is the emergency room staff going to begin taking a “lifestyle” survey before they will administer medical treatment? Is my husband, who does not drink, smoke, eat meat, or any other adversity, going to have to wait for his bypass surgery next time while the doctor or some other yayhoo tries to figure out if he deserves to have surgery to save his life?
I think people should truly learn to mind their own business. And don’t try to tell me that my lifestyle, or anyone else’s, is your business because you may have to wait in line for treatment of a heart attack or other medical emergency. Hospitals are set up for more than one emergency at a time.
Overall, and just to be clear, NO ONE, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, SHOULD BE DENIED MEDICAL TREATMENT OF ANY KIND FOR ANY REASON. This includes drinkers, smokers, obese people, people who are too skinny, people who have blond hair, black hair, blue eyes, or green. This, in case it has slipped some minds, is America. This is the place where we can make our own choices as long as those choices are legal. You may not agree with choices some people make, but they have that right just as you do. And they have the same rights as you do when it comes to medical care.
