Avastin er blevet godkendt til lungekræftpatienter, men den kan ikke helbrede sygdommen, ‘kun’ hjælpe mod hoste og smerter, og forlænge livet i op til 2 måneder. Peter Gøtzsche, direktør i Nordisk Cochrane Center, der forsker i effekten af behandlinger, føler også lige trang til at påpege at det er en lille forlængelse af et liv der ikke kan reddes.
Derudover koster de dyre dråber 200.000 kr om måneden. Det bliver hurtigt til 2.4 millioner om året….Nåeh nej, de lever jo kun op til 2 måneder ekstra. Så Peter mener at man skal prioritere anderledes.
Jeg er egentligt enig. Man skal se på omkostningerne, og uanset hvilken behandling Peter Gøtzschke skulle have, så bør den stoppes. Den tjener jo kun det formål at forlænge et liv der ikke kan reddes. For uanset hvilken behandling han skal modtage, så ender han med at dø.
Selvfølgelig bør man tage diskussionen omkring hvor mange penge man skal bruge på kortvarig forlængelse af livet hos uhelbredeligt syge. Men jeg tror man skal lave et panel bestående af selvsamme uhelbredeligt syge, for de er de eneste der kan vurdere det. Det er fint at Peter Platzsche har en mening om at 200.000 kr om måneden er for meget. Men er han mand nok til at mene det samme hvis den ene måned var hans egen? På et eller andet niveau tror jeg ikke ret mange kan relatere til det, for 200.000 for en måned er mange penge. Men hvis du skulle dø om en time, ville 200.000 så stadigt være for meget for bare en måned mere? Ville du ikke betale den pris? Eller ville du seriøst sige at det er ok, dit liv er ikke 200.000 værd? Det er noget man skal have med i betragtningerne, så man ikke ender med et samfund hvor alvorligt syge bliver betragtet som udgifter istedet for mennesker.
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I admit, I have been lazy for too long, so I promise to do better than putting the translation in the newsletter, thus depriving the english-reading Alvinists the right to hear the Word as soon as it is written.
Avastin is a new medicine, just approved to patients with lung cancer, but it can’t cure anything, it can ‘just’ remove coughs and pains, and add a month or two to the patient’s life. The manager of a center which does research into the effect of medical treatments, Peter Gøtzsche, does feel the need to point out that it is a very small prolonging of a life that can’t be saved anyway.
Add to this the fact that the drops (Avastin) costs 200.000 crowns pr month (around 32.000 dollars). That is the large sum of 384.000 dollars pr year, he says….Oh, wait, it isn’t, since it just buys the patient up to 2 months. So Peter believes we need to set our priorities straight.
I actually agree with him. You have to look at the costs, and no matter what treatment Peter Gøtzsche needs, we should stop it. It only serves the purpose of prolonging his life that can’t be saved anyway. No matter what treatment he will be offered, he will end up dead anyways.
This discussion is of course important. How much money must the public spend on short term prolongment of the life of terminally ill patients. But I think the only ones to truly and honestly judge this is the terminally ill people themselves. Great for Peter that he believes 32.000 dollars pr month is too much. But is he man enough to think the same thing if it was his own last month? On some level, I don’t think many people could judge this fairly, because 32.000 dollars is a lot of money. But if you were to die in an hour, would you still think 32.000 dollars was a lot to buy just one more month? Will you seriously claim that your own life isn’t worth 32.000 dollars pr month? This has to be considered as well as just the price. Otherwise we will end up seeing critically ill people as mere expenses, not as human beings.