> Generally true, but the judgment call on "is this patient better off by being left alone" vs. "is this patient better off by having a surgery" is not easy, es

> Generally true, but the judgment call on "is this patient better off by being left alone" vs. "is this patient better off by having a surgery" is not easy, especially in our culture which worships heroic medicine. Patients often demand that something be done because they are primed so from the popular media they consume. That's why it's a problem with professional ethics in healthcare first and foremost. Nobody in the bureaucratic chain is qualified to make or judge medical decisions and them trying would only be a monumental disaster because they don't even meet the patient and they're probably not medical professionals themselves. Hell, the patients and their family are rarely qualified to make the decisions - just look at what doctors chose for end of life care versus what their patients end up doing. The system doesn't work if we don't police the professionals making the decisions at the point of care. The trick is not overdoing it like we did with opiates, scaring doctors from prescribing them even for patients genuinely in need.