A Usenet persona calling itself Franklin wrote:


Universally when it comes to forcing people to pay for other people's bad
health.


Your sense of humanity is touching. You'd probably stand there and watch a
guy drown on the river rather than trying to save him, too.



Whether I would try to save him depends on a number of factors, including
whether I'm capable of doing so without losing my own life. That's a
judgment I get to make, and not a decision that you can compel me to make.

Something you learn as an EMT is that you're not responsible for the trouble
other people get themselves into. You try to do the best you can to help
them, but sometimes people die. If you take on the guilt of other people's
bad judgment or ill luck, you won't last long in emergency services. And
there's little sense in two people dying because a rescuer tried to do the
impossible...or merely something he's not capable of doing. Demanding that a
non-swimmer to dive into a raging rapid to save a kayaker who is trapped
underwater is stupid. Besides the obvious futility involved, the kayaker
took on the risk with full knowledge of the potential for death, so it's
unreasonable for him to expect others to risk their lives to save him.

Now, if a person WANTS to try to save someone, that's completely different.

But, the whole point of my statement in re health care is that it's wron to
COMPEL someone to pay for another's bad habits, bad genetics or bad luck.

If you want to ASK them to help, that's perfectly fine, so long as you don't
gripe if they decline.

--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser