Name(s):
Refusal to give medical care
Denial of access to prescription medication
Denial of prescription drugs
Incidence
The British Medical Association has reported several cases in which patients had had their operations postponed or treatment withheld because they were committed smokers. By 1991, several British doctors refused to prescribe new thrombolytic drugs demonstrated to reduce risk of death in heart attack victims. Despite findings that the new medications were 25% more effective in death prevention, some doctors feared the drugs' slight risk of provoking internal bleeding and stroke. As a result, many heart patients and their families were outraged at medical denial of what seemed to be life-saving drugs.
Claim
No one is forced to enter training for the life of a doctor, and patients have the right to expect treatment from their doctors when they are sick. Law suits are covered by medical insurance and its cost is passed on to patients. There is no reason for a doctor, dentist or nurse to refuse to treat a patient because of the disease unless it is outside the practitioners field of expertise.
Counter-claim
The dishonesty among the pro-smoking lobby lies with their apparent assumption that smokers are somehow being punished by doctors who are refusing them treatment. Doctors are doing no such thing. If you have one heart and several patients needing a transplant, it is only natural that you give it to the patient most likely to survive the longest. Alcoholism, obesity, age and smoking are all pertinent factors.