Good grief! A woman underwent the most extreme surgery imaginable to be cured from cancer. She was literally cut apart. From the story:
A Canadian woman is the first patient to undergo an operation in which doctors cut her body in half to remove a tumorand survive. Janis Ollson, 31, was pregnant with her second child and doctors assumed her intense back pain was just a typical symptom of pregnancy. But it wasn’t long until she was diagnosed with bone cancer that was untreatable by chemotherapy or radiation, The Winnipeg Free Press reported. The Manitoba mother was told by experts in Toronto they would have to cut her body in half by removing her leg, lower spine and half of her pelvisa surgery that had only been performed on cadavers, which meant successfully putting her back together again was a huge risk.
This story reveals the awesome power of the human will to live. But I bring it up because it raises an interesting question. Assuming it wasn’t experimental, which isn’t paid for by insurance or government benefits, would the surgery be permitted in a rationed milieu? It had to be breathtakingly expensive. If the answer is no, it proves the “death panel” nature of rationing. If the answer is yes because she is a young mother, but no if the patient was, say, 60, it proves the discriminatory nature of rationing. If the answer is yes, then perhaps rationing would never be really accepted, which is my position.
What say you?
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.