A Question of Responsibility.docVIP

A Question of Responsibility 　　Acolleague recently suggested to me that Orientalmedicine is largely preventative,while Westernmedicine is generally curative.I tested this thesisby visiting my local nharmacy in England,wherethere was no doubt that most of the products on sale weredesigned to fix your problems,rather than to stop them oe-eurring in the first place. 　　Does this suggest different attitudes between East and West,or is it merely a reflection of what happens in a more highlydeveloped healthcare system,such as we have in the UK? Cer-tainly,there is an attitudinal problem in my home country,where there is a high level of expectation that the governmentshould provide a healthcare service that is both complete andof the highest possible quality. 　　This begs three questions: first,what about personal re-sponsibility for ones own health? Second,what exactly shoulda complete health service include? And third,who is going topay for it? 　　As reg.ards responsibility,if we accept that every humanhas a right to life,is that the same thing as a right to health? Ifso,does it mean that the health of every individual becomes asocietal obligation,rather than something for which the indi-vidual should accept primary responsibility? 　　In every country,perhaps worst of all in the USA,we seeevidenea of people who eat,drink,or smoke indiscriminately,and suffer from serious health problems as a result,l havealways held the view that we are what we eat,so our dietaryhabits define the health of our bodies.Should we then pun-ish those who eat too many hamburgers? Is it acceptable thatsuch people still feel entitled to rety on the public healthearesystem when they fall ill? Is it possible or even desirable todraw a distinction between people who have been well be-haved and those who havent? And anyway,how do we definemoderation? At what point does drinking red wine becomedangerous to the body? (As an aside,I note that,during Napo-leonic times,the French designated the red w