What’s wrong with the American medical system…
“Medical professionals must take to heart the edict that their responsibility is to the health of the patient, not the patient’s wishes.”
So proclaimed a recent Boston Globe editorial. This belief, which seems to be shared by the vast majority and was made law by the Durham-Humphrey Amendment, epitomizes what is wrong with the medical system.
Medical professionals have a moral obligation to respect their customers’ wishes, not to paternalistically take away their freedom in the name of their so-called best interest. People have the right to live their own lives however they wish, as long as they do not infringe upon the rights of anybody else. No freedom is more fundamental than the right to control what happens to your own body.
If someone wants a medicine or medical procedure, and they are willing to pay for it and absorb the costs of any side effects that might result, they have a right to have it. Doctors are highly trained so that they can perform medical procedures correctly and give people advice when asked, but they have no right to interfere with people’s medical decisions, and it is wrong that our laws and culture give them this power.
Only when people have the liberty to make medical decisions for themselves will America truly be free.