E J Dionne's op-ed piece published in today's Mpls Star-Trib asserts that the USA health care system will not be reformed without an honest admission that finally everyone's health care fails, that is to say, no matter how much money one has and no matter how good the care one receives, sooner or later, everyone dies. Spending more on higher quality care can lengthen life, but in the end, it does not save lives.
Not only modern Americans long for immortality. This has been a human dream for dozens of centuries in dozens of cultures. But, modern Americans may be particularly susceptible to the illusion that we can achieve it: not just better living through chemistry (that old Monsanto slogan), but longer, unending living through technology.
Is that the freedom we want, to live this life forever? Is that freedom or is it better understood as captivity to what we know?
Might equality of quality of life be a more democratic, and more realistic, dream?
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