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does a patient have any responsibility? if you are going to have a liver transplant, do you have an obligation to stop drinking? ok, let's consider a situation where one MUST ration health care. who should get the expensive procedures? the young? ONLY the young? what if he is a young brutal retarded criminal? what if an old person writes beautiful poetry? what if the old person is VERY much loved (and has the testimonials to prove it). what if the old sick person is VERY rich and will spend a lot of it on medical care for others? I THINK these things can NEVER be determined by LAW (that is, some finite procedure). a JUDGE could do it who must be a very fine person, elected for a very long term. when hospital boards of ethics judged who were going to get transplants, they found that the rich and the white were overrepresented. not totally, but noticeably. what would you prefer? fair because random or unfair because human?
