Alzheimer's is the cruelest of illnesses and the loved ones of the victims suffer as much as the victims. The allure of this theory, in my view, is that if you could somehow turn this into a treatment, people would give you whatever money you demanded for it. You want $200,000? We'll find it, somehow, just make Mom remember who I am, please.
And that is but one reason why our system of health care is immoral. Not amoral. People who are sick, their families watching, are not able to make rational economic decisions. These things should be decided when we are rational, as a society, and my preference is the "veil of ignorance" approach provided by John Rawls. If you don't know what disease you get, what your native tongue is, whether you're rich or poor, w…
The idea of a "veil of ignorance" as a mode of capturing the implications of some political position is a useful, wide-ranging, and easily digestible ethical concept; I'm going to add it back into my intellectual tool bag for when I am trying to discuss ethics with folks.
Thanks for the reminder.