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Re:Both in rich and poor countries, universal health care br... by judah on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @11:29AM (#16977851)
>> No, the medical professionals, i.e. doctors do.

The UK doctors punted, agreed. But Italian doctors believed different treatments were warranted. The Italian government gave the boy citizenship.

In a private healthcare system, the parents would be free to pursue that. But in the state-run system of the UK, there was no such freedom. Alfie Evans died last Monday.

Re:Both in rich and poor countries, universal health care br... by oldcynic on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @12:38PM (#16978719)
> But Italian doctors believed different treatments were warranted

Again no.

"The Italian hospital had acknowledged it could not find a cure, but had proposed maintaining Alfie’s life for about two weeks while doctors tried to investigate his condition."

There are no treatments - even that seems to be agreed.

> In a private healthcare system, the parents would be free to pursue that

If they could afford to write a blank cheque for open ended life support. Any insurance would defer to the consensus of medical opinion and cease treatment. They would have ceased cover long before the 2 year trail of court cases and appeals all the way up to rejection from the European Court of Human Rights (not part of the EU or UK govt).

Re:Both in rich and poor countries, universal health care br... by DanBC on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @01:28PM (#16979182)
The Italian doctors agreed treatment was futile. They were only offering end of life care.

https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/thomas-evans-v-alder-...

Re:Both in rich and poor countries, universal health care br... by judah on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:41PM (#16980462)
I was indeed misinformed. Reading several news articles, not one mention that all that was left of his brain was water and spinal fluid. I only see that in the court transcripts, and that assessment was done from brain scans over several months.

Given this new evidence, I change my opinion on this: the state-run healthcare did offer the best advice.

(The question of state-run medical systems restricting freedom still applies here, even though the freedom would simply have been different end-of-life care.)