The Baroness Mary Warnock is one of those o so annoying Guardian Wimmin so beloved of Tabletistas and Guardianistas everywhere. Yesterday, on Prime Time Radio she made a very fierce arguement in favour of Euthenasia for those with Alzheimers disease. Not just that these poor unfortunate people should have the right to commit suicide when they became a "burden" but that, actually they had a duty to kill themselves.
Mary Warnock is a so called 'expert' in medical ethics (save us O Lord, save us) and was once Chair of the Human embryology Quango. If she has ever understood the basics of human morality yesterday she let slip her mask of rationality and philosopher savant in favour of economic utilitarianism. In short, an Alzheimer sufferer has a duty to kill themselves because otherwise their care will cost the NHS a fortune.
At least she is an honest lady. Their are those in government and those at the top of the NHS who hold very similiar views I am sure. With regard to the NHS such choices are always going to have to be made. Who receives what care? When? The system will never have enough resources. The National Health Service is badly named. It ought to be called the National Illness Service. That would be more honest. You see, Bevan got it wrong back in 1945. He ought to have argued for a national health education service which would have taught the working classes how to eat healthily and keep their homes clean and so forth. Instead he committed the nation to a helpless cause. The fact is, no amount of money will ever be enough to treat everyone. This is why we have to have NICE to tell the PCT's what drugs are value for money; and which are not. And I am sorry, but no one has an absolute 'right' to the treatment or drug of choice for them. Unless they want to pay for their own treatment.
If I, with a terminal illness hear of a drug which may prolong my life for, say another three months but it costs £200 per tablet (and some do cost that) and I get refused it, what do I do? Perhaps I mount a legal challenge and get into the Tabloids and my PCT then 'caves in' to my demands. I am happy. My family are happy. My neighbours are happy. But somewhere in the system someone else, perhaps not so articulate, photogenic or popular, loses out. The pot is only so big. The NHS is never going to be adequately financed. What is 'adequate'? So it is inevitable that someone else has to lose out.
But back to Ms Warnock. Sadly she is a person with some influence in society. She is an influencer, "a mover and a shaker" as they say. Her thoughts on this subject will be noted somewhere. We have known for some time that, thanks to the power and influence of the Warnock's of this world, we are on the 'slipperey slope'. Yesterday we just slid a little further down into that abyss of humanist filth.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
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