7 ms·
An aspect worth noting is, that our society is more and more redefining the meaning of "health" from the absence of illness to perfection of some universal subj
by allendoerfer 11y ago
An aspect worth noting is, that our society is more and more redefining the meaning of "health" from the absence of illness to perfection of some universal subjective standard, which disregards factors like age or sex.
White teeth have at least some roots in biology - generally the younger you are, the whiter your teeth - still it makes no sense to compare the whiteness of different aged people and judge their health based on them.
Ethically we are on a dangerous path: Orthodontics for children are standard in Europe and the US, countries like Japan are catching up quickly. Teeth-whitening is common in the US and is becoming more popular in Europe, too. Orthodontics includes oral surgery more and more often. Korea is all in and full blown plastic surgeries are becoming the standard [0].
These surgeries cause pain and hinder you to eat properly for months. Still we are on a path to include them in our definition of health. In Korea parents often pay for them as a present for graduation.
People who the majority perceives as disabled or even just ugly are not necessarily unhealthy. We should make a clear distinction between body modifications and medicine. Unfortunately our ape brains see a high status individual and cluster these things together. This lets us worry about health problems we previously did not even know we had, making us psychologically and often physically unhealthier in the end.
Another big problem is, that we ignore the fact that we age. I do not think that care for the elderly should be an area of medicine. When your body breaks apart at 80 years old, that does not make you unhealthy, you are just old. You should not get the needed social interaction from doctors, who try to fix something that is perfectly natural to fall apart.
Some of the plethora of pills an 80 year old takes surely increase his or her life expectancy, I feel like others might not be worth the hassle. I surely do not want to ruin my last moments on earth organizing my calendar of doctor appointments trying to squeeze out the last couple of days I can possibly get.
[0]: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/23/about-face http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/23/about-face
- hessenwolf 11y agoThe NHS approach of putting monetary value on a year of life and comparing the drug costs to that is a good approach to reducing the spend on tired old bod's.
- to3m 11y ago"Tired old bods". Will you feel the same when (touch wood) you reach such an advanced age? :)
- hessenwolf 11y agoYes. Hopefully euthanasia will be a thing should I reach the decrepit stage. One last party (perhaps with a bit of morphine), followed by drifting to an infinite sleep... sounds fairly dignified.
- soaringmonchi 11y agoSorry, but this sounds a bit short-sighted. While nobody should be sentenced to suffer severe pain for the rest of his life, just because your body isn't as capable as it used to be doesn't necessarily mean that you want to end your life. Often there will be people that you will leave behind and you certainly don't want to explain them that it's your decision to do just that. On top of that, this is also dangerous from a social perspective where people could get a feeling that they are supposed to go once there is nothing they can contribute to society anymore. We should rather focus on allowing making "regular" dying more dignified rather than promoting euthanasia.
- hessenwolf 11y agoI do think it should be a personal decision. Also, euthanasia is certainly not preventable (I think of a certain gentleman that took the bottom of the river approach). I have seen a few old people live beyond their time and wait for death though. It is quite harsh and undignified. "I am just so tired and I want to go."
- coldtea 11y agoThere's nothing about "wired new bod's" that makes them more worthy of being alive...
- 11y ago
- stefanix 11y agoNot the same. Orthodontic procedures generally pay off in the long run. Straight teeth and an aligned bite are typically more functional. Straight teeth are easier to clean and preserve. In many EU countries health insurance pays for them because a long term financial argument can easily be made. Bad teeth can cause severe health issues and get expensive later in life.
- allendoerfer 11y agoI was not arguing that orthodontics is bad. I was just using it to illustrate the expanding definition of the word "health".
- kiba 11y agoAnother big problem is, that we ignore the fact that we age. I do not think that care for the elderly should be an area of medicine. When your body breaks apart at 80 years old, that does not make you unhealthy, you are just old. You should not get the needed social interaction from doctors, who try to fix something that is perfectly natural to fall apart. 'Naturally' or 'natural' is a poor argument to make about not caring for the elderly. If the elderly is not able to walk, eat, or think, then they're sick or disabled. It doesn't matter if you are 80 or 20 years old.
- rosser 11y agoI think there's a pretty wide gulf between caring for people with a disability, and keeping your teeth toilet-bowl white after decades of drinking tea or coffee, or whatever.
- allendoerfer 11y agoI am not saying you should not care for your body, when you are old. I am just thinking that the amount of care you put in should have a positive ROI in quality of life and I am not so sure about that in any case of so called elderly care.
- adrianN 11y agoWhen your body breaks apart at 80 years old, that does not make you unhealthy, you are just old. Or we could get our shit together and classify aging as a treatable disease and spend an adequate amount of research dollars on finding a cure.
- allendoerfer 11y agoGood idea. Until we have said cure lets not pretend that you can fix ageing by visiting the doctor twice every week, effectively offloading needed social interaction to them. Edit: This view might be radical on HN, but while I do believe that we can fix ageing and that eventually someone will, I am not quite sure if we really should.