1000 extra uk deaths per year
freddie | 24.02.2004 12:33
bbc news article reveals that 1000 uk deaths per year result from breathing in other peoples smoke, and that only a completely smoke-free pub or restaurant brings a worthwhile reduction in exposure. Having a no-smoking area is not, it seems, enough.
see :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3507985.stm
this raises interesting questions on our society's attitudes to risk assessment, and to the economic value of human life.
an unrelated article at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3514065.stm
reveals how lives are being lost through an acute shortage of nhs intensive-care beds.
It is time that, as a society, we began a rational dialogue on such questions, rather than the hysterical feminised hypocrisy which claims that even one human life is priceless, whilst leaving the difficult resource-allocation decisions to a silenced sub-group.
I believe that we need to incorporate into our school curriculum a course which teaches our children to assess and balance risks and costs, and to recognise how society does and must make compromises involving assigning monetary value to the life of a citizen.
Only with a cool understanding of the true relative size of the risks we all face from traffic accidents, ill health, false imprisonment etc, can the hysteria of the media, government spin, and the screeching of the occasional unfortunate sufferers, be resisted.
see :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3507985.stm this raises interesting questions on our society's attitudes to risk assessment, and to the economic value of human life.
an unrelated article at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3514065.stm reveals how lives are being lost through an acute shortage of nhs intensive-care beds.
It is time that, as a society, we began a rational dialogue on such questions, rather than the hysterical feminised hypocrisy which claims that even one human life is priceless, whilst leaving the difficult resource-allocation decisions to a silenced sub-group.
I believe that we need to incorporate into our school curriculum a course which teaches our children to assess and balance risks and costs, and to recognise how society does and must make compromises involving assigning monetary value to the life of a citizen.
Only with a cool understanding of the true relative size of the risks we all face from traffic accidents, ill health, false imprisonment etc, can the hysteria of the media, government spin, and the screeching of the occasional unfortunate sufferers, be resisted.
freddie
Homepage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3507985.stm
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
How much is your life worth
24.02.2004 21:21
cat
obviously, cat
25.02.2004 19:15
That is absolutely NOT what we're discussing.
What about the lives of STRANGERS !
How much would you personally pay to save the life of a complete stranger?
Not in a moment of impulse, but calmly, carefully thought out, in discussion with your family ?
£10 ? £500 ? £3000 ?
Enough to enter into a huge debt which you will have to pay off over thirty years, keeping yourself and your family trapped in penury ?
Somewhere in that range is a figure at which your generosity will wither away.
Unless you are an exceptional person the truth is probably somewhere around £50 or even less, though we all avert our eyes and try to pretend different. Thats about what it would cost to save the life of a child in a starving third world country, and give them a good chance of continuing survival.
The people who decide how much of your tax dollars to spend on the nhs are making exactly similar calculations on your behalf, but its much nicer not to know, isn't it. Like eating meat but carefully never looking inside an abbattoir !
If every human life saved is priceless, then abolish all powered vehicles. Everyone walking and on bikes. Once it settles down, a huge saving in lives. Or ban smoking and enforce it. Or alcohol. HUGE numbers of deaths saved.
Your thinking is that of a child. It's exactly why we need new elements in the curriculum, to help us balance the goods and bads, and each take the responsibility of forming an adult view.
freddie