- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

In article <1154055292.4378…@lamg.com> P_Iann…@lamg.com (Paul Iannone) writes:

> : No argument here. Active and intelligent patients can be a real
> : wake-up call to a doctor, the best doctors are more than happy to
> : listen to a patient make their case – if you have one that isn’t, you
> : should change. That’s not the same thing at all as legislation that
> : absolves practitioners from liability based on a fallacious conception
> : of freedom of choice.
> :
> : sdb

> Reasoning in this manner, all freedom of choice is fallacious. Even the best
> informed are not free to choose. Does threatening the individual with
> statistical risk make them free choosers? Aren’t they simply acting out of
> fear? When patients take a drug therapy, are they free choosers? Aren’t they
> simply acting from the doctor’s presumption? How could anyone be free in such
> a way that your tribunal of ethical authorities wouldn’t have power over
> them? Your concept of forcing therapy on people, previously stated, makes you
> a very poor source of information on free choice or free will, which is
> probably a more important issue.

First of all, I have no concept of *forcing* therapy on people. I
believe people are and should continue to be free to decline any
therapy. But – just because someone can say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ does not
make that choice a free one. I don’t think anyone here has ever heard
me suggest that a patient should be sued…

This kind of thing doesn’t only happen in medicine. If I’m taken in a
stock swindle, for example, should I have no legal recourse because I
could have declined to purchase the stock? Of course not, and for the
same reason: There is no free choice without being fully informed.

People who come down with cancer rarely have the time to take the
decade long education that their physicians have gone through – and
some may not have the capacity. Out of necessity they base their
decision on the information they are given by the experts they
hire. If they MDs succeed in truthfully informing them of the best
choices they have, then they *can* make a free choice. If they are
lied to, they aren’t making a free choice.

sdb
—
s…@ssr.com