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[theinevitable]

yeah, something awful confuses me. the features (photoshop phriday, movie reviews, etc) crack me up. but the front page, typically, offends me. or is just... unfunny.

[nuero]

The Front Page of SA is pretty awful, generally. The forums are really where it's at.

[AlohaDawg]

Like rotten.com, they pride themselves on it.

Routine procedures are one thing. Doing a c-section during a difficult pregnancy. For me, getting IV antibiotics when my stupid parotid gland swelled up. People taking antibiotics to avoid dying from pneumonia. There are treatments for cancer and AIDS that can give people a lot more time than we had ever hoped.

Those kinds of procedures are one thing. Three million dollars of other people's money is an entirely different story. I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve it, I'm saying that if I was in their position I would have done things differently.

Well, the thing is, almost no one pays full price for their medical care - it's almost always someone else's money. Even if you have insurance, the whole point is that a group of people pay in to benefit the percentage that need help, and occasionally use the service as well.

The thing is, this is one extreme case but to deny this one extreme case benefits of medicaid (I assume that's the payor?) would also imply that it's OK to, for instance, cap medicare and let old people die, or people in long term care from brain injuries.

Once you start, where do you stop? And who is smart enough to decide where to draw the line?

I don't really disagree with your point - that quality-of-life issues are an important consideration, as are the source of the money - but it's a tough problem to solve.

[Doc]

Without making a moral judgement on the piece I think this one fails just because the writer can't seem to decide whether they are just going for gross out humour or trying to make some sort of point about when quality of life trumps right to life.
For instance: he keeps coming back to how people with this disease have normal intelligence but if we're meant to be emphasising with the girl then it can't really work as a humour piece and if we aren't meant to be emphasising with her why bring it up? Most of the jokes seem to be directed at the people he sees as either treating her like a show or at her parents and carers acting like she is mentally as well as physically disabled.

On the other hand this has made me want to learn more about her it's not a total loss.
The achewood thing is just odd though.

EDIT: after checking out the little girl's website it seems she is just three so most of the dumb stuff they quote in the journal section sounds like pretty normal three year old stuff to me. I can normally at least raise a chuckle out of SA, but this one is definitely sub-par.

[linnea]

Well, the thing is, almost no one pays full price for their medical care - it's almost always someone else's money. Even if you have insurance, the whole point is that a group of people pay in to benefit the percentage that need help, and occasionally use the service as well.

The thing is, this is one extreme case but to deny this one extreme case benefits of medicaid (I assume that's the payor?) would also imply that it's OK to, for instance, cap medicare and let old people die, or people in long term care from brain injuries.

Once you start, where do you stop? And who is smart enough to decide where to draw the line?

I don't really disagree with your point - that quality-of-life issues are an important consideration, as are the source of the money - but it's a tough problem to solve.

The government (Tricare, I assume) is paying for it, not Medicare/Medicaid. Her dad is employed by the Navy. Service members don't pay anything at all for their health coverage, which is a good thing. I just don't agree with her parents. I would not put a child through all that. My heath coverage, for example, costs a goddamn arm and a leg. My employer pays for most of it. People who have insurance end up paying for their care.

My point is that yes, people can be kept alive, but at what cost? Yeah, you can do surgery after surgery but she's never going to have a normal life.  Maybe when she gets older and can suction her own trach tube herself and doesn't try to pull it out (like babies and toddlers are wont to do, not knowing any better), maybe then the nurse won't be needed. I don't know. I'm just saying that it's one thing for heroic resuscitation measures, such as doing CPR or intubating someone to save them, but it's another to spend millions to try to keep someone alive against God and nature. At what point does the cost outweigh the benefit? Obviously her parents think that it's worth it. I don't. Then again, I'm not a part of their family and I don't know what it's like. Your mileage may vary.

[Doc]

At the risk of being a dick, why is it God's will that a rape victim who has an unwanted pregnancy should not interfere with the child's development but we can bend nature and technology into a loop to keep people alive who are so stricken that without medical technology they wouldn't survive more than a few days (not thinking of this particular girl here just severely injured, disabled people in general). Isn't God going to be pissed we're defying Him like that?

For the record I myself think we should do everything we can to help the sick and disabled but don't understand how letting nature take it's course in one situation is God's will and in the other it isn't.
On the other hand I guess there is the argument that whatever happen's is God's will and we should do the best we can but in that case why worry whether it's God's will or not? Ain't nothing we can do about it.

[JorgeMacD]

Well

this got out of hand FAST

[Fooker]

Well crap if I had been born like that I know there is no way $3 million of taxpayer dollars would ever have been spent on keeping me alive.

[smick]

I and my special lady friend have a similar discussion about stem cell research.

I get all googly eyed, and talk about the possibilities in some weird Doug Henning rainbows and magical wonderment.  She will then usually retort with something along the lines of "Really?  Are we running that low on people that we need to keep more of 'em around, and for longer?"