Rights and Commodities

Bill Whittle brings it all together.

Though one quibble, one can easilly make the argument that Medical Care is a right. In the sense of "It is my right to decide what care I want for my body. Provided I don't infringe on someone else's rights by not having said care paid for."

Sort of like how Free Speech is "It is my right to say what I want, watch what I want, and read what I want. Provided I pay for any advertisements or books I buy."

But wait... singlepayer means that you have only one source for your medical care.

And these various very simple solutions to obesity all require limiting your right to medical care if you're too fat, or too old, or too infirm.

That last one is chilling as apparently the Brits have a system that withdraws treatment and food and water and "lets" a patient die; it accounts for nearly one third of their hospital death, and they call it a Liverpool Care Pathway.

Wow, doublepluss ungood. If BB know then rightthink soulution be. And why was this all done? Well to open up hospital beds for turnover, reduce costs, and "remove" patients that are too hard to take care of.

And how often is it done?

There are around 450,000 deaths in Britain each year of people who are in hospital or under NHS care. Around 29 per cent – 130,000 – are of patients who were on the LCP."

The more relevant statistic would be to dig in and see how many people were "added" to the LCP. Though technically, if we go with Healthcare as a right, then there shouldn't be any such euthanasia system, unless the patient explicitly requested it.

Because otherwise you have an agent of the State (nationalized medicine remember) denying a citizen their rights.... to ensure their death.

Gee, if these guys are so concerned about penny-pinching greed killing people maybe they should switch to a more compassionate system.

As an ideological matter I have no problem with Do Not Resuscitate orders or even Suicide. I may disagree with your decision, but it is your life to do with as you decide.

And really if a person really wants to kill himself... unless you put them in lockup on suicide watch, he will.

Again, it comes down to the individual deciding what kind of medical care they want. Free choice of the individual? What kind of crazy idea of a right is that?

Making that individual, personal, decision morally equivalent to the State deciding to liquidate a bunch of people because they're too expensive is ghastly, and makes a mockery of the idea of Rights.

So yes, if Healthcare is a right, and the State can decide to deny Healthcare (a right) because it's for the greater good, then how much respect do you think that State will give to other rights, like free speech, or self defense, or due process.

If you make commodities a right, then you make people into commodities.