Today's Topics:
Death Race 2000?
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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 20:39:39 +0100
From: Adam Stauffer <Adam-Stauffer@deshaw.com>
Message-Id: <199408241939.UAA20466@london.deshaw.com>
To: subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Death Race 2000?
Slackful doctor sponsors Euthanasia Day at my local
hospital... Nothing like the taste of General Foods
International Coffees and a cigarette after running
"Microsoft Death..."
Hospital Bans The Doomsday Machine
By Nick Pryer Evening Standard (London) 24 August 1994
A doctor who warned that health cuts could lead to a "doomsday
machine" computer deciding which patients live or die has been banned
from using it.
In a strongly-worded statement Guy's Hospital said Dr. David Bihari,
its director of intensive care, had not approached its ethics
committee to request clearance to use the computer in treating
patients.
"The Trust stresses the computer should be used to record details of
patients admitted to the unit but not to direct patient management," a
spokesman said.
"No instruction has been issued to Dr. Bihari to use the computer to
make decisions about patient care." The computer program has shocked
patients and health professionals because it flashes up a death symbol
of a small black coffin with a white cross if it predicts a patient
will die in less than 90 days despite modern treatment. [At least
it's user friendly... but crosses kind of bother me too. --Ad]
Dr. Bihari today defended the computer as a useful source of
information but insisted: "The computer does not make decisions.
Doctors make decisions and they're doing it every day. Today, perhaps
10 patients in intensive care will have their treatment discontinued,
but that decision will be made by doctors in consultation with the
patients' families.
"The point of the research is that we just do not know how many of
those patients would survive if treatment was continued.
"Some doctors withdraw treatment at a relatively early stage and
others leave it much later. All the computer does is compile a
statistical assessment of a patient's chance of survival from medical
information and clinical data which are fed in on a daily basis.
"Computers can't made[sic] decisions about treatment, but they can
predict with an accuracy of 95 per cent if a patient is going to
die. [Seems like they might be able to do better than this somehow...]
It can be used to help a doctor make a clinical decision."
"Dr. Bihari, who has been a vocal critic of Government health reforms
and cash cutbacks, admitted that the diagnostic computer program could
be used to save money by refusing costly treatment to patients who
would probably die anyway...
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