27 August 2009
Overusing Medical Care
Indeed, most Americans would probably insist on focusing medical practices on their own or their loved ones’ needs rather than on serving the greater good of society, as states Betsy McCaughey in her Op-ed article in the August 27, 2009 Wall Street Journal. It’s that self-interest that exemplifies many human endeavors and that has led us into a number of dilemmas besides bankrupting health care costs, including global warming, international financial recession, and criminal behavior, to name a few.
Societies have learned to deal progressively with these threats to improvement of their welfare through regulation in recognition of their common interest in establishing and maintaining order and preserving a livable environment. In Darwinian terms, the driver has been the survival of the species. But survival requires a certain measure of altruism in any species, i.e. sacrificing an individual’s apparent welfare for the long-term benefit of everyone. It is shortsighted to step away from that need for social engineering when we have taken control to do so away from the Invisible Hand of evolution.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has a point when he blames simplistic faithfulness to the Hippocratic Oath for the exploding cost of health care in the U.S. Somehow, the contradiction between serving each patient’s needs and serving the greater good does get resolved by the use of triage to manage emergency situations. The combination of our extended life expectancy and our expectation of cutting-edge therapies is leading our civilization’s finances into an emergency condition where choices have to be made between prolonging individual lives and improving the general quality of life.
Indeed, most Americans would probably insist on focusing medical practices on their own or their loved ones’ needs rather than on serving the greater good of society, as states Betsy McCaughey in her Op-ed article in the August 27, 2009 Wall Street Journal. It’s that self-interest that exemplifies many human endeavors and that has led us into a number of dilemmas besides bankrupting health care costs, including global warming, international financial recession, and criminal behavior, to name a few.
Societies have learned to deal progressively with these threats to improvement of their welfare through regulation in recognition of their common interest in establishing and maintaining order and preserving a livable environment. In Darwinian terms, the driver has been the survival of the species. But survival requires a certain measure of altruism in any species, i.e. sacrificing an individual’s apparent welfare for the long-term benefit of everyone. It is shortsighted to step away from that need for social engineering when we have taken control to do so away from the Invisible Hand of evolution.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has a point when he blames simplistic faithfulness to the Hippocratic Oath for the exploding cost of health care in the U.S. Somehow, the contradiction between serving each patient’s needs and serving the greater good does get resolved by the use of triage to manage emergency situations. The combination of our extended life expectancy and our expectation of cutting-edge therapies is leading our civilization’s finances into an emergency condition where choices have to be made between prolonging individual lives and improving the general quality of life.
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