Kill the wrinklies!!

So, let me see if I've got the logic worked out: Because the NHS does such a lousy job of treating cancer patients, they have the worst rates of survival in the EU, particularly for those over 75.

Because older people have such lousy survival rates, we're now going to not treat them at all, in order to save "resources" for younger patients who have a *slightly* less-lousy chance of getting out of an NHS oncology ward alive.

Did I get it right? Do I win something?

I notice that the DM writer, however, didn't look too closely at which govt' body might be contributing to the kill-the-wrinklies policy.

Psst...you need to interview these guys: National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.)

To quote... err... myself...

In 1945, the great 20th century Christian apologist, C. S. Lewis, wrote a science fiction novel in which he proposed an alternative British history. In this history a government-funded scientific think tank, the National Institute for Coordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), dictates government policy according to eugenic, utilitarian principles.

In that novel, That Hideous Strength, the ironically acronymed N.I.C.E. takes over Britain and attempts to create an anti-human totalitarianism in which human rights are abolished and people are used as disposable tools in medical and social experiments. The guiding principles of Lewis’ N.I.C.E. are immediately familiar to people on the pro-life side of our current Culture Wars: a mechanistic and ultra-utilitarian, anti-life philosophy that regards human beings as merely a disposable means to an end.

...

Set up by the Labour government in 1999, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) produces "guidance" for the NHS on what drugs and treatments should be provided by Britain’s government-funded health system. From the extraction of wisdom teeth, to the funding of Alzheimer’s drugs, to the provision or withdrawal of nutrition and hydration to disabled patients, N.I.C.E. lays down what will and will not be paid for by Britain’s National Health Service.

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