Quote (thundercock @ Nov 16 2014 08:32pm)
Suppose that the kid has a 2% chance of living with a particular form of treatment. Should he be given the treatment? Is there a cutoff? Who ultimately gets to make these decisions?
Good point. As much as it pains me to say, I think giving people a rough "value" in dollar amounts (it hurts me just to type) might be the most practical method. If a treatment costs more than the expected value of the life saved (so if 0.02 * [value of a human life] >= [procedure cost] then the treatment should be made), maybe it needs to be paid out of pocket.
It feels awful, but I can't think of a better option. Luckily I'm not a working bioethicist. Hopefully there are better options I'm just overlooking.
Having a sort of medical judicial committee in place to determine who gets treatments seems far too impractical.
How do the countries with the most successful socialized healthcare handle it? I think taking their lead would be a good start.