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by internet_user
2884 days ago
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I know this is an unpopular view, but who are you to decide what level of risk should a patient accept? Literally every step, including inaction has risks. Can patients decide independently what should be done with their own body, or are they presumed to be too dumb and must obey your decisions? Should patients be consigned to disability immediately without even attempting some procedure, simply because the chance of success is too small in your arbitrary definition? You have never been seriously sick. |
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For a comment arguing that I'm being dismissive of sick people, this is a genuinely insulting and exceedingly false assumption to make. Yes I have, yes I am, and those experiences absolutely support my point.
> Who are you to decide what level of risk should a patient accept? ... Are they presumed to be too dumb and must obey your decisions? ... Should patients be consigned to disability immediately without even attempting some procedure, simply because the chance of success is too small in your arbitrary definition?
I did not say any of this at any point. I did not say anything remotely resembling "people should be consigned to disability because some procedures rarely work". None of what I am proposing is about denying patients treatments they make informed requests for.
Please actually read that Atlantic article. It is not in any way about denying medical care to a sick patient who wants it because "doctors know best". It is exactly the opposite - a patient was being railroaded into major heart surgery that made sense as a malpractice precaution but not as patient care. He did his own research, obtained multiple opinions, and independently decided to what should be done with his body.
That is what I want more of. In a discussion of cost-cutting I focused on the straightforward case of expensive treatments being pushed on patients without giving them full information, but over-treatment and under-treatment both happen. If it would make you happier, I can list some of the ways I think we can get better care at lower costs by providing more treatments and emphasizing patient wishes over current medical consensus.
I'm painfully aware that the 'patients are clueless' attitude you're attacking exists. I mean that literally, as a result of that attitude I'm in pain right now. But you read an entire worldview into one sentence, in the face of examples that specifically disagree with it. The thing you're objecting to is terrible and deserves opposition, but you're picking a fight with someone who already agrees about that.