So, I read (via Drudge) the article about how the U.S. is ranked as having the 42nd highest life expectancy in the world.
The article makes this sound somehow tragic, as if America is somehow at some severe disadvantage from the rest of the world, as when one quote reads: "The starting point is the recognition that the U.S. does not have the best health care system. There are still an awful lot of people who think it does."
Now don't get me wrong, life is good. I want to live as many years as God sees fit to give me...but I think it's worth putting into perspective that America is only lagging behind the top nation by about five years:
A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years... Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, had the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to the Census Bureau.
Gee, I wonder how a tiny country in the middle of nowhere could possibly manage to have the longest life expectancy. But look at the years we're talking about: between 78 and 84. Are most Americans really going to freak out when they realize that they are missing out on some of the best cafeteria food they'll ever be forced to eat...possibly through a straw? Let's face it, before America revamps its entire health care system to force us all to live longer, we should probably start revamping the entire way our culture treats its octogenarians. Much of our society already treats our seniors with a throw-away mentality, and that simply isn't incentive for us to take better care of our bodies.
We should also start asking ourselves why a culture that typically advocates things like assisted suicide should suddenly become so invested in squeezing out another six years of life out of everyone...because something tells me it has little to do with valuing the dignity of the human person.
Again, I think medicine should be treated as a healing ministry. We should always strive to preserve life, and we should never intentionally end it, especially not on the basis of quality of life issues or for the convenience of society. Still, if you are going to try to get me panicked about the health care system or if you are going to try to convince me not to eat more ice cream, then you are going to have to do better than to tell me I might miss out on five more years of slurping applesauce and cleaning dentures.
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