If you want to see a health care system in the thrall of mainstream bioethics thinking, look no further than the UK where bioethicists have essentially taken over the medical ethics of care provided by the government. Now,in a form of futile care theory, the National Health Service is planning to deny late stage cancer patients access to a drug that could extend their lives for months. But, this isn’t seen as “cost effective.” You see, many in bioethics no longer see life extending as a worthwhile medical endeavor. They have redefined this as “merely extending the dying process.” And in that process we go from giving the benefit of the doubt to life, to pushing people into unwanted death.
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