Both attempt to appear rational and balanced as they grapple with health-care policy. And both surrender abjectly to medical utilitarianism. And therein lies an acute and fast-approaching danger to the future of America as a moral nation. Callahan disbelieves in medical utopia, and everywhere he looks, he sees only limits. People expect too much from their doctors.
Medicine is too expensive and getting more so.
Health care consumes 14 percent of the gross domestic product and takes resources away from other important community interests. Not as much, according to Callahan, as might be supposed. It's true that life expectancy has increased by approximately thirty years during the twentieth century but that has mostly to do with improved infant mortality rates. And our increased lifespan is actually a bit of a curse. We used to die quickly from infectious disease.