Word: moralizers
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...long as the prevailing moral discourse in America maintains its current notions, reforming our system of medical care is impossible...
...first, that each person should be free to pursue his desires so long as he does not harm anyone else; second, that such desires cannot be judged inferior to those of someone else. Taken together, these two judgments mean that health-care reform is incompatible with our national moral ethos. Public option or not, finding some way to extend care to the uninsured requires at least some sacrifice by those who are adequately covered under the current system. On an economic level, reform includes inherently sacrificial effort. Welcome or not, redistribution of our fixed resources to a wider group must...
...Because society’s moral axioms enervate attempts to convince the public to join this slim majority. Since Americans now shy away from a hierarchy of moral preferences, even those who would maintain their current care based on selfishness cannot be condemned. If forsaking current comforts for others would not be obligatory under our contemporary moral decorum, appeals for medical reform would then lose nearly all their persuasive force. While objectors rightly note that inaction hurts the uninsured, precisely because the currently comfortable might intend no harm, this complaint proves relevant but non-essential. In our modern mindset, sacrifice...
...reawakened consciousness to the plight of the uninsured is anchored within our moral framework. The intellectual backing necessary for its success, however, is not. The health-care debate serves as only one instance of this more general conflict between compassion and conscience. Our collective moral outlook appears purposefully structured, above all, to not offend and to avoid dogmatic statements that seem improvable. Even disapprobation toward a selfish man seems out of place. His hoarding might not be laudable, but each of us is hesitant to claim definite knowledge of his moral worth. In a widespread effort such as national medical...
Advocates of health-care change would do well to keep in mind America’s touchiness with the rhetoric of sacrifice. Our baseline moral assumptions frustrate the efforts of health-care reform advocates, who are in the uncommon and precarious position of asking U.S. citizens to sacrifice their autonomy for the greater good...