Balancing Ideal vs. Real

“This approach does match the commonly accepted principle of triage. Put a bit simply, it is the principle that medical resources are to be spent saving the most lives. This can mean allowing some people to die, but this is justified because saving more lives is better than saving fewer lives.”  Take from http://aphilosopher.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/peta-vicks-pits/

This is realistic.  No matter how you look at it, people are going to die.  We all do and one day will.  Sometimes the day can be postponed.  This is what doctors and surgeons attempt to do in the ER and OR of hospitals all over the world.  The delema faced by the operators of the hospitals, as well as the doctors, is one of ethics, morals, and economics.  How do you determine who’s life is worth your resorces?
     The hard truth of the situation is that a hostpital is a business.  Sad, but true.  The owners of the hospital have a goal of keeping it profitable.  As such, they have to make sure that the resorces of the hospital are used in the largest beneficial way possible, for the hospital.  The hard truth of that is that some people will not, therefor, get the treatment they will need in order to survive.   One could make the argument that it is ones own responsibility to ensure that one is able to secure medical support when needed.  The truth is that much of life is beyond the individuals control.  Sure there are things that one can to do limit ones risk to health issues, but you can not stop the unexpected. 
     Idealistically, we could hope that everyone could get the medical attention they need.  Realistically we know that this is not possible.  In the current state of affairs around the world, man (human kind) is too individually selfish to allow society to progress to such a point as to allow us all to exist upon an equal playing field.  How cool would it be if we lived in a world where society made sure that people like doctors and leaders had the necesities of life for the services they provided for the community and we did not worry so much about having things because working together and helping each other were more fulfilling and satisfying that climbing to the top of some ladder of success upon the backs of the lower class?

~ by An Imperfect Servant on 03/14/2009.