Kragholm Free States wrote:Antipatros wrote:It's really not about agreeing or disagreeing.
If the hospital is full, people are going to be denied care. Why should society bend over backwards in order to accomodate people who turned down a free vaccine?
Well the thing is this is a question that goes well beyond the specific case of the covid vaccine, because precedent informs broader policy, and into a more general question of "is it morally acceptable for the healthcare system to deny care to people if their condition is deemed to be the fault of their own poor decisions". Should hospitals turn away someone who's just had a heart attack, if it was caused by them eating themselves into obesity? Should the chain-smoking lung cancer sufferer be refused care, or the alcoholic with liver failure? What about the people who come in with broken limbs from their participation in extreme sports? Injuries from failed suicide attempts, should they be turned away too? Someone having a severe allergic reaction because they didn't read the menu properly in a restaurant and ordered the wrong thing?
You may well say that yes, that is a desirable way for a healthcare system to function. I would say that it barely sounds like a healthcare system at all.
No not really. This is a discussion because hospitals are being overwhelmed. When not everyone can be treated you have to decide who to turn away, its happened plenty of times before and is nothing new.