Some random thoughts...

The other day we had an interesting lunch table discussion. It all started with the story of octuplets born in California to an unmarried single mother through in-vitro fertilization. What pissed many people is the million or so worth of medical bills becoming public (tax payer's) responsibility. All this when she already had 6 children (also by IVF).

I am at loss to figure out what was she thinking! Many of my friends felt she needed some kind of counseling. Almost every morning we wake up to TV channels talking about this story and they come up with new and small useless bits of information. They had exclusive interviews with the mother and the grand mother too. There were also rumors that she had undergone cosmetic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie!

There is also talk about selling her story and book contracts and fee for appearances etc., What has media come to?...its disgusting to think someone is willing to shell out huge amounts money to get her story....she hasn't thought about the public humiliation it will cause her, her parents and all her children due to this. I really feel sorry for those children. People can go a very long way for few minutes of fame!

What surprises me is the Doctor's willingness to comply with patient's request when clearly she was not in a position to provide good care to her children (present or future). We are told the California Medical Association is looking into possibility of medical misconduct in this case.
Unfortunately, medical costs have become very high, partly due to very high (malpractice) insurance cost for the doctors.

A colleague of mine was telling me story of one of her relatives who was diagnosed with small cell carcinoma. The family was thinking of suing the doctor for some ridiculous money for not detecting this cancer early enough! This person was a chain smoker who smoked more than 2 packs of Cigarettes and day for more than 20 years. Small cell carcinoma is one of the most difficult to diagnose and Smoking is a significant etiological factor. Unfortunately for them the cancer is very malignant and the person did not survive long enough to sue anyone.

In general, insurance costs (Home, Auto, Property, Health, Life, Personal, Travel etc.,) have become so expensive these days due to the fear of being sued for anything and everything. This reminds of a wonderful cartoon of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson ;-)