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From: wtm@bunker.UUCP (Bill McGarry)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Smoking As Disability (?)
Message-ID: <9498@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 90 04:46:18 GMT
Sender: news@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: yale!harvard!dsac.dla.mil!dpscg1!honi5133 (George E. Russell)
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Lines: 55
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 6167

PG>...people who smoke should not be able to avail themselves of
PG>benefits that I would want to grant to the disabled through
PG>no fault of their own.
PG>
PG>  I would extend this to AIDS victims who engaged in behavior
PG>that caused exposure...In general, I would want to see AIDS
PG>victims helped, but I don't think we can afford to coerce
PG>people to provide these benefits, because the cost is astro-
PG>nomical and there are a lot of folks who simply cannot afford
PG>to be taxed at such a high rate...I think volunteer help will
PG>be bet, because governmental help is too inefficient.

Phew!

First of all, the majority of the people who have full-blown
AIDS today contracted it before we knew how it was
transmitted.  Under the rationale presented above, they would
be entitled to benefits.  

I hear views like this and wonder, "Who are we to play God?"
What gives us the right to decide who is entitled to medical
care and who isn't?  I understand that resources are limited.
God knows that I can't even afford to be taxed to support
someone with a common cold ... _or_ and AIDS patient..._or_ a
cancer patient ... _or_ a physically or mentally disABLED
person.  

Perhaps is we had spent more time and effort (and money) on
AIDS research years ago, instead of waiting for it to take its
toll on "mainstream" America, we wouldn't have these enormous
hospital bills.  And the medical treatment doesn't have to be
that expensive.  It's the pharmaceutical companies that won't
produce a drug unless the price can be high enough that makes
the bills so large;  it's the hospitals that refuse to care for
patients that make the other hospitals overcrowded and
understaffed;  it's the insurance companies that refuse to pay
for AIDS/HIV treatment for their policyholders.

Volunteer help isn't the answer.  If it were, the ADA wouldn't
be needed.  And I don't think we're "coercing" people to help.
If I were taxed to pay for someone else's medical care, I would
know that I could reasonably expect to get the same care myself
if I needed it.  And the _taxes_ are going more for research
and education than medical care.  Research and education to
prevent people like you and I and our families from
seroconverting.

George
----------
George Russell
Defense Personnel Support Center

grussell%dpscg1.uucp@dsac.dla.mil