Why We Must Ration Health Care (but not wars?)

[Guest guest]

Why We Must Ration Health Care By PETER SINGER

Published: July 15, 2009

....Remember the joke about the man who asks a woman if she would have sex with

him for a million dollars? She reflects for a few moments and then answers that

she would. " So, " he says, " would you have sex with me for $50? " Indignantly, she

exclaims, " What kind of a woman do you think I am? " He replies: " We've already

established that. Now we're just haggling about the price. " The man's response

implies that if a woman will sell herself at any price, she is a prostitute. The

way we regard rationing in health care seems to rest on a similar assumption,

that it's immoral to apply monetary considerations to saving lives — but is that

stance tenable?...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19healthcare-t.html

It is not an old joke. It is a remark by Wilde. In any case, I do not

believe we should discuss rationing health care nor its costs without also

discussing limiting military spending and the endless parade of wars and

invasions.