Another reader question, and open thread

This is one of those topics I’ve always sort of avoided, and I’m still avoiding it for now. But that doesn’t mean you have to remain silent. Here’s the reader comment/question:

This is off-topic, but I wanted some doctorly input to a discussion that I am having over at another blog.

This lady is hyperventillating about the “sinister” (her word) policy of the Oregon Public Health Plan.

They won’t cover curative treatment for people who have a “less than 5% chance of surviving five or more years”

Instead, they cover palliative treatment, hospice, and Doctor-Assisted suicide.

This lady is setting it up as a moral judgement that the government is making a value judgement on 1,2,3, or 4 years of life.

To me “less than 5% chance of surviving five or more years” doesnt sound like curative treatment doesn’t have a very good chance of buying you even one year of additional life. I think that she has an unrealistic view of what it means to have a less than 5% chance of surviving five or more years” means.

Heres the story:

http://conservablogs.com/haemet/2008/07/28/the-real-face-of-choice/

Teresa

It’s all yours, folks.