We reserve the right to refuse service; most people have seen such signs at restaurants and retail shops. But now, metaphorically, some hospitals are hanging such signs over their entry ways, by having protocols that grant doctors the right to say no to life extending medical treatment to patients whose lives they consider lacking in quality to justify the cost of care. An article published in the fall issue 2000 Nursing Magazine, revealrs how far the health care profession will go, a planned medical campaign among medical professionals to impose care "rationing" among us have already happened. The article reviewed policies that are in effect in four major hospitals; of these only one hospital said, "doctors should act to support eh patients life when life extending health care is wanted" (james 250). How is medical abondoment justified? They are justified by the dirty little secrets that all medical personal are being taught, that medical treatment can be stopped when the doctors, (added by the ethics committees and insurance companies) decides that you are going to die anyway so they are not going to do anything.
Advocates of care shift the focus from the physical effect provided to the patient, and towards whether the patient has the potential for appreciating such benefits. Ah yes, monye. It is cheaper after all not to treat someone, and it's cheaper of all if the patient dies! Hey, when you are dead, they don't pay anything. Wow. What a concept!.
I value sitting with dying patients and holding their hands, it reminds me that life is a great mystery and we all share the characteristics of being human.