The utilitarian bioethicists that exert so much control over NHS medical ethics are tightening the noose around the throats of UK patients once again—this time urging that the lives of expensive patients not be extended. From the story:
Same thing will happen here too—whether arising from government funded health care or HMOs—if we allow “the bioethicists” to decide our health care public policies and medical ethics for us.Patients cannot rely on the NHS to save their lives if the cost of doing so is too great, the Government’s medicines watchdog has ruled for the first time.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) has said the natural impulse to go to the aid of individuals in trouble—as when vast resources are used to save a sailor lost at sea—should not apply to the NHS.
The disclosure follows last week’s controversial decision by Nice to reject four new drugs for kidney cancer even though they have been shown to extend life by five to six months.
