SOYMB has commented previously upon the price of a life when it comes to issuing much needed drug treatments and we are not at all surprised that the subject has once more returned to the news .The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has turned down a new drug to combat advanced liver cancer because it is too expensive to justify the modest benefits it provides.Nexavar extends the life of terminal patients by an average of 2.8 months but some have lived for over one year. Between 600 and 700 patients out of the 3,000 a year diagnosed with liver cancer would be eligible for treatment with Nexavar. However the cost to the NHS of treating them would be £9 million a year.
The Guardian editorial explains "Everyone agrees it provides extra months, but it will not be administered – except to the rich – as it fails to provide enough extra months for the money...The sanctity of life is compromised even though there are enough physical resources to give every patient what they need. For drug prices are not governed by scarcity... it's unthinkable that a competitive world would ever unite in the way that would be required to put people before profit. But then isn't it also unthinkable to ask people to accept early death when there could be another way?"
The basic socialist case presented , indeed , but the Guardian declines to take the argument to its full logical conclusion and demand that all the means to life ( food , clothing and shelter) are made freely available to all .
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