Cost-benefit vs medicine

[huy.duong@ctsu.ox.ac.uk]

Dear anh Tuan,

>People, who advocate this concept, argue that if a person has a limited 
>chance of suvival, then treatment won't bring any benefit and 
>waste of money.

I think the ethical problem is complicated by the fact that this money
is needed to save many other persons.

Let me tell you a personal experience. The evening of 30/4/75 at Cho+. Ra^~y
hospital in Saigon. The emergency ward was full of wounded people, mostly
civilians who had got caught in the crossfire, been hit by stray shrapnels,
or by falling bullets that had been fired into the air. The driveway for
the ambulance was packed full of people lying on the ground. The doctors
only had limited time and medicines, ie resources, and they had to decide whom
to save first. Some people whom the doctors didn't think had much of a chance
had to wait until the morning to be treated. Some of them died. The doctors
couldn't have spent hours trying to save any one person whom they think didn't
have a chance and let the chances of others be jeopadized.

Now the situation is similar. The hospitals have limited resources, eg money.
Somewhere along the line someone has decided how much money to give to the
hospitals, eg we did when we voted, the government did when it made the budget.
All the doctors and perhaps hospital management could do is to try to save
as many people as they can with what we have given them.   

Huy