Health At Any Cost?

Suppose research showed that a completely government-controlled comprehensive health plan improved a population's physical health significantly over a 10 year period. A government-mandated vigorous exercise plan for youth, government policies on agriculture to limit the supply of excessive amounts of red meats, government-subsidized vacation, etc., could probably do this. Who would doubt that the population's health would improve? Such government action has already occurred – in Nazi Germany. A population willing to be enslaved can, at least for a time, be healthier under some regimes. Though we do not have formal research into the effects on German health, an eyewitness has testified to the contrast he noted between vigorous German youth and scrawny British youth at the outbreak of World War II.* What would have been his assessment at the end of the war? The youth of Germany were decimated by Nazism. Similarly, abortion is sometimes justified because it leads to a healthier population. Neither health nor longevity should be set up as the ultimate values, but rather God's revealed will. Freedom comes at a cost; part of that cost is recognizing that some people will abuse their health or ignore their illness to their own detriment.

* Shirer, William, The Nightmare Years, Little, Brown & Co., Boston 1984.


Excerpt from "Ethical Issues in Medical Insurance"