The disturbing part of this story [1] is the reactions of so-called medical professionals to this couple’s situation and decision.
Now there are two ways to look at this. The one that might make more sense (though certainly no more palatable) is that these physicians et al are concerned with Insurance issues. What’s covered here? How does malpractice potentially enter into it? And while these folks are relatively well off and can carry their own expenses, what kind of precedent might be set here that will spread to the uninsured or Medicaid?
Unpleasant, but it would give a dimension to it that we could wrap our disgust around.
The other way to see it is as an example that, much as we might as a society wish to see ourselves as maturing, getting beyond such primordial reactions (namely—“Ugh! You different! You die!”), it turns out not to be true. That what we have is a facade and as long as no one really tests it, we can be what we think we are, at least to ourselves.
My reaction to what this couple is doing was initially (and continues to be) “Wow, cool!”
But I may well be in the minority.
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