[ExI] Fan of Sci-Fi? Psychologists Have You in Their Sights

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Sun, Oct 25, 2020 at 6:47 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> It's called triage, isn't it? Deciding on who gets first treatment.

The Navy psychiatrist's point wasn't that triage might not be
necessary. Rather, he was undermining the view that healthcare workers
should decide based on moral fault. Wasn't that clear from the
examples mentioned: alcoholic, heart attack victim, rock climber?

> How
> about some 80 something year old who is going to die soon anyway
> versus a much younger person who, if treated, could have many
> years left.

While that is one standard of who to treat: who will have the best
outcome or have the longest life after treatment -- it's different
from the one the Navy psychiatrist discussed. He was talking about how
some healthcare workers want to deny treatment based on whether they
believe it's the patient's fault. Thus, a young drunk is viewed as
undeserving whereas an old heart patient is viewed as deserving by
these folks. The psychiatrist's response was that, from a certain
perspective, the old heart patient was almost certainly as complicit
in their condition and in ending up in ER as the young drunk, so moral
fault couldn't really be used to decide here.

(He went on further to say that healthcare workers shouldn't be making
medical decisions based on which patient is blameworthy or not. It
seems like that's a good idea in most cases. Yes, one can come up with
edge or corner cases, such as a brutal dictator not being given
life-saving attention. That seems to have been what happened to
Stalin: he was murdered by people who drugged him and then kept him
from getting any attention until he was too far gone to help.)

> I know who I would treat.  I remember a chart showing how
> much is spent on health care as a function of age, and it's very positively
> accelerated.  Most of the money is spent in the last couple of years of
> one's life.  Well, I want my treatment too, but not at the cost of not
> treating a younger person.  In fact (I think now - who knows what I will
> think later) I will turn down expensive treatments which will only keep
> me alive for a few months longer.

You can make that decision for you -- including signing a DNR
(Do-Not-Resuscitate).

> bill w
>
> I think we need Rafal in on this one.  Where did he go?

He would likely know what standards are in place better than me, but
would he be able to tell what the correct moral stance is here?

Regards,

Dan
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http://author.to/DanUst