I don't agree with Tigerhawk on everything, but his post on our society's tendency to value the intense suffering of the very few over the large benefits of the great many is really a must-read. He takes some gratuitous shots at progressives, but the essential tension he identifies is not progressive nor Democratic in origin -- it's societal, affecting the right and the left in equal measure. The media, and Fox News may in fact be the worst offender here, lavishing obsessive, hysterical coverage to the deaths of a couple people from any drug. See the ridiculous hype over the statistically insignificant deaths from RU-486, which remains far safer than childbirth or surgical abortion, and is not coming from the left.
As for his concerns that progressives will have trouble making these decisions under a single payer system, they belie the fact that most progressives want to move to such a structure because we believe choices about withholding care should be made by medical experts, not wallet biopsies. Nevertheless, his post, when freed from its partisanship, is thorough and thought-provoking, and folks should read it.
