David Brooks: The scary and sloppy case for rationing
David Brooks of the New York Times likes to fancy himself as a truth-seeker, bringing social and hard sciences to the masses. But in his Friday column on health care and death , he makes some shocking and inaccurate assertions. Given his coziness with the Obama administration one has to wonder if he is test-driving some Obama administration rationalizations for rationing.
Brooks is enamored of Dudley Clendinen’s “splendid” essay, as he describes, “The Good Short Life.” Brooks thrills to this definition of a life worth living:
Instead of choosing that long, dehumanizing, expensive course, Clendinen has decided to face death as one of life’s “most absorbing thrills and challenges.” He concludes: “When the music stops — when I can’t tie my bow tie, tell a funny story, walk my dog, talk with Whitney, kiss someone special, or tap out lines like this — I’ll know that Life is over. It’s time to be gone.”Well that “dehumanizing, expensive course” allows millions of Americans who would have died in past years to “kiss someone special.” But is someone confined to a wheelchair (no dog walking) or who needs help dressing not living a life of value? Clendinen, and in turn Brooks, begin down a slippery slope as they decide that, really, is it worth it to keep grandpa around for years if he can’t tie his tie?
Brooks then embarks on a flight of misinformation to suggest we’re wasting much of that money. He finds other useful sources:
Callahan, a co-founder of the Hastings Center, the bioethics research institution, and Nuland, a retired clinical professor of surgery at Yale, point out that more than a generation after Richard Nixon declared the “War on Cancer” in 1971, we remain far from a cure. Despite recent gains, there is no cure on the horizon for heart disease or stroke. A panel at the National Institutes of Health recently concluded that little progress had been made toward finding ways to delay Alzheimer’s disease.Much of this is flat-out wrong or misleading. We may not have “cured” all cancers (Brooks is misinformed if he thinks “cancer” is one disease). But survival rates for many types of cancer have soared, especially for breast, prostate and lung cancer. Five-year survival rates for the range of cancers went from 50.1 percent to 65.9 percent in 2000. Peter Pitts of the Center in the Public Interest told me in a phone interview that for many cancers ”early detection and aggressive treatment” can now extend life or result in effective “cures,” that is long-term remission.
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He concludes: “When the music stops — when I can't tie my bow tie, tell a funny story, walk my dog, talk with Whitney, kiss someone special, or tap out lines like this — I'll know that Life is over. It's time to be gone.” Well that “dehumanizing
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Very scary to even hear you say that. Then again, just because you're an American doesn't mean you're necessarily smart. Travis- disability insurance is not healthcare insurance. Obamacare doesn't even address disability insurance.
Specifically, Stuart contends in the story, the government has focused on ensuring the seafood is free of the cancer-causing components in crude oil while overlooking other harmful elements. “And they say that their own testing — examining fewer
TREVOR HAGAN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jonathan Hefney (left) with Clint Kent at Bomber practice at Canad Inns Stadium on Sunday. Kent is aiming to bolster a defence that�s already intimidating. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers' defence could get stronger this
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