首页
登录
职称英语
Modern lore has it that in England death is imminent, in Canada inevitable a
Modern lore has it that in England death is imminent, in Canada inevitable a
游客
2025-04-13
31
管理
问题
Modern lore has it that in England death is imminent, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans’ life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced,clinical depression controlled,cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death-and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
Death is normal;We are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under optimal conditions. We all understand that at some level,yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved, Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care,we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it’s futile. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. A vast industry pushed for aggressive and expensive therapy for prostate cancer, despite a lack of demonstrable benefit for many patients. Physicians-frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient-too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified.
Meanwhile, the kind of palliative care provided in hospices is taught derogatorily to medical students as a treatment of last resort. In 1950 the United States spent $ 12.7 billion,or 4.4 percent of gross domestic product, on health care. In 2002 the cost will be $ 1.54 trillion-nearly 14 percent of GDP, by far the largest percentage spent by any developed country.
Anyone can see that this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some ethicists conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age-say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm "have a duty to die and get out of the way"so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.
I wouldn’t go that far. Not long ago similar arguments were used to justify mandatory retirement ages as young as 55 for employees in industry, academia and government. The message was "Step asidel want your desk and your paycheck." Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78,Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the maladies that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I aspire to age as productively as they have.
Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit, or should. I’ve watched as the lives of my family members and friends have been painfully prolonged. It’s a stark contrast with the inexpensive and compassionate deaths of my parents a generation ago.
As a medical consumer, I may want Medicare to buy me multiple coronary bypass operations or a desperate round of bone-marrow transplantation. As a taxpaying citizen, I know-intellectually, if not emotionally-that the value of such measures must be weighed against other social goods,such as housing,defense and education,And as a physician,! know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care,have achieved longer, healthier lives than We have. As a nation,we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely, cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve peoples’ lives. For example,the field of alternative and complementary medicine receives just A. 5 percent chunk of the National Institutes of Health budget.
To create a human system of health care,We must acknowledge that death and dying are not themselves the enemies. As the post-World War II British epidemiologist Archie Cochrane once observed, cures in medicine are rare,but the need for "care"—attention and reassurance from approachable, sympathetic physicians And caregivers-is widespread. Cochrane worried that by pursuing cures at all cost, we would restrict the supply of care that patients can receive. This is precisely the crisis of contemporary medicine:billions for cures, and pennies for care. Medicine can accomplish great things for the generation now passing 50,but only if we’re wise enough not to ask too much of it. [br] The best health care_____.
选项
A、can even change our genetic programs to prolong our lives
B、can guarantee the old an unimaginable life of high quality
C、should do everything possible to save the patients’ life
D、has limits to what it can do and should do
答案
D
解析
推理题。根据第一段的最后一句“But not even a great health-care system can cure death-and ourfailure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.”即使是最好的医疗保健体系也是无法战胜死亡的,即有它的局限性,即正确答案为D。这里容易混淆的是选项B,“an unimaginable life”显然是错误的,文中的“unimaginable”表述的50年前的不可想象。
转载请注明原文地址:http://tihaiku.com/zcyy/4035498.html
相关试题推荐
ModernlorehasitthatinEnglanddeathisimminent,inCanadainevitablea
ModernlorehasitthatinEnglanddeathisimminent,inCanadainevitablea
ModernlorehasitthatinEnglanddeathisimminent,inCanadainevitablea
Whilestillcatching-uptomeninsomespheresofmodernlife,womenappeart
Whilestillcatching-uptomeninsomespheresofmodernlife,womenappeart
Agoodmodernnewspaperisanextraordinarypieceofreading.Itisremarkab
Agoodmodernnewspaperisanextraordinarypieceofreading.Itisremarkab
Agoodmodernnewspaperisanextraordinarypieceofreading.Itisremarkab
Modernplantbreadingislargelybasedonplannedhybridizationcombinedwith___
TheUntiedStatesandCanadaarelandsof____exceptfortheIndians,whoarethe
随机试题
MemoTo:Peter,DeputyEditorFrom:DanielThoma
Nottoomanydecadesagoitseemed"obvious"bothtothegeneralpublicand
(2017年真题)投资决策辅助,是指依据尽职调查中发现的目标公司的特点和风险,可
下列选项中,包括期货基金、期权基金、认股权证基金的高风险基金是()。A.货币市
工业统计调查单位不包括()。A.规模以下工业法人单位 B.工业个体经营单
股份制可以成为公有制的实现形式。()
特殊类型基金包括()。 A.系列基金B.基金中的基金 C
A.静脉注射 B.皮下注射 C.皮内注射 D.鞘内注射 E.腹腔注射注射
切断一侧舌下神经的结果是A.舌在口中下垂 B.舌缩回 C.伸舌时舌偏向同侧
下列投标人的情形中,属于以他人名义投标的是()。A.使用通过受让或者租借的方式
最新回复
(
0
)