From: John Cuccia 

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 14:16:59 -0400, "Tony Ingenoso"
 wrote:

>Ability to pay has been a criterion of care quality ever since time began.
>That's an implementation detail, not a philosophical stance on the notion of
>offing "useless eaters" as general public policy.

First, you are the only one talking about offing "useless eaters"
(you are the only person I've heard use it, by the way) as a general public
policy.  You introduced the concept to this thread.

Second, I see very little moral difference between the state pulling the
plug against a family's wishes and Schiavo's husband, who waited until he
was absolutely sure that there was no recovery.  The fact that Terry
Schiavo apparently expressed desire to not be kept alive by artificial
means makes the state acts slightly more immoral, in my view.

>The wealthy will always have their own private doctors, indeed their own
>private facilities if they want.

Which has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion.

>I see I'd have to do the Rich S. "20 questions" routine to
nail you down on
>this, so I'm not even going to bother to try.

You can't nail me down because I really do not have an answer to the overly
broad question aoub where to draw the line.  I honestly do not know; that
isn't a dodge, it is a fact.

I'll say this about your hypothetical Alzheimer's patient.  If, upon
diagnosis but before dementia set in, he specified that he was not to be
kept alive via feeding tube or IV when he was no longer able to swallow,
then he should not be.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5