unplugged

This article on Slate discusses why it's both economic and compassionate to pull the plug on a ventilator because the dying patient couldn't pay her medical bills.  It's an odd thing to think about, and I get angry sometimes when I read articles defending otherwise very sad and disheartening commentaries on the state of the world by using an economic analysis.  It's sad enough to think about people losing their homes or their children because they can't afford to make ends meet.  But to think that people are too poor to stay alive - and that decisions are made like that - stuns me.  What angers me most is the juxtaposition with the Schiavo case.  The state and federal government were trying to COMPEL a woman in Florida to stay alive against what it appeared her wishes were - all while permitting the death of a woman in Texas because she was poor.  Shocking.