We don't let anybody die, even if they want to, even if they are suffering unspeakably from an excruciating terminal disease. We don't even passively end treatment, fill them with pain medication, and wait. We still pour on all the best technology and the highest-paid people for heroic efforts that we all know are not only futile but cruel. Over half of all the money spent on health care in this country is spent in the last 30 days of life. But most of it is spent on people in the final phase of clearly terminal illnesses.
Most premature births are preventable, caused by such factors as poor diet.
The incentives just don't line up. We Americans have a passionate thing going with the health care industry. We distrust hospitals, despise insurance companies, and fear the intricacies of health care plans. Some of the sounds of hope come from intensive studies of normal clinical practices. A hospital in Cleveland combined its cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation departments and discovered that two thirds of the patients formerly scheduled for bypass operations don't even need them - if you give them some good, strong education and guidance in diet and exercise.