Pag. 1/8 "The Vulnerability of the Sick."

How society will provide healthcare to its most vulnerable populations is a complex and difficult question that quality of life utilitarianism cannot resolve. The situation is further complicated by reflections on historic experience (i.e., Nazi Germany) and our own tendencies to devalue the neurologically vulnerable, the poor, and the genetically “impure. ” This paper reviews this issue practically and philosophically and concludes that the answer lies in the collective experience of western civilization that all human life must be intrinsically valued. On the basis of an experiential a priori: every individual is crowned with dignity. It all goes back to Aristotle. “All men are mortal ” is the major premise. “John is a man, ” is the minor premise. The conclusion is inescapable: “Therefore John is mortal.” This paper is about that inevitability. As Pogo the philosopher (Kelly 1954) once put it, “We cannot be absolutely sure we are going to die, but we can be pretty damned sure. ” What then do we actually mean by saying that there is a special vulnerability of the sick that should drive our healthcare commitments? If, after all, we are all made of friable stuff and will be sick someday, then we are all equally vulnerable from the beginning. Birth and death are parentheses, setting off life’s bumpy ride from the silence at either end. The Vulnerability of Illnes