2 ms·
Does that actually happen in the US every day? The hospital is keeping a kid alive, they decide it's better to kill the kid, so they kill the kid? Am I misreadi
by ameister14 9y ago
Does that actually happen in the US every day? The hospital is keeping a kid alive, they decide it's better to kill the kid, so they kill the kid? Am I misreading you or is that what you're saying happens?
It's been my experience (anecdotal as a person in a family of 8 MD's including pediatricians) that the US actually keeps people alive way past the point where it's appropriate to do so - family has the right to force emergency life-saving procedures and hospice-type end-of-life care isn't as common.
Actually, reading the blogs, that's what the parents are trying to do - send the kid to the US in an attempt to save his life, and the UK says that's cruel and he should be allowed to die.
Have I totally misread this?
- int_19h 9y agoUS will provide emergency care (although someone will still get billed for it - if not the patient, then their parents). But that literally means emergency, like life support. If what you require in order to not let the illness progress to the point where you need life support is some expensive surgery, and you don't have insurance that covers that, you're not getting it. Similarly, for non-life-threatening health issues, you'll get emergency care that treats the immediate symptoms of whatever your problem is (and you'll get billed for them, and be expected to pay), but you get no treatment for the problem itself. Needless to say, this is a very wasteful system.