So, the UK government has stated that the NHS may refuse medical treatment for smokers and the obese if their conditions might mean the treatment would be less efficacious or not cost effective. This is neo Puritanism. Following this logic, people with multiple sex partners should not be treated for VD, nor gay men and drug users treated for AIDS if their conditions would make the treatments less effective. If the government is going to invalidate a sick person’s claim under government funding to medical treatment based on lifestyle choices, then it should be applied across the board to the politically connected and those with cultural panache as well as the politically incorrect. But of course, people should receive care when they are sick regardless of their lifestyle choices.
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