Who Decides?

I've been hearing a lot lately from critics of OTC sales of Plan B. People are complaining that it will reduce the “embarrassment” of purchasing this drug, thereby increasing use.

Personally, I’m much more comfortable dealing with professionals such as my doctor or a pharmacist than the clerk at the Circle K, so I don’t see where buying an OTC pill instead of a prescription lessens embarrassment.

But more importantly, if we as a society feel that women should be embarrassed to have sex, there are a lot of other things that we as a culture should shame people for doing.

Let’s start by refusing emergency medical care to anyone that injures themselves by driving under the influence. After all, we don’t want to send the message that incredibly irresponsible behavior lacks consequences.

And for those who use drugs, no more adrenaline shots to the heart after an OD. These people need to learn that there’s a price to pay for eschewing society’s boundaries.

We shouldn’t just pick on criminals, either. Sexually active women aren’t the only law-abiding culprits of societal coddling. Let’s stop treating diabetes in obese folks, since they’ve had more than enough warning that being a pig will kill them.

No more cancer treatments or lung transplants for smokers. No more liver transplants for drunks. If you break your neck bungee jumping, skydiving, riding a motorcycle or bicycle, too bad for you. You knew the risks.

How about those people that refuse to get routine preventive medical care? Should we refuse to treat late stage prostate cancer simply because an annual physical would have caught it years ago, saving millions of dollars in treatment cost?

Not getting a mammogram or PAP smear regularly is damn irresponsible. Shouldn’t we, as a society, ensure that these irresponsible jerks suffer the consequences for their actions?

From now on, let’s set a standard for who deserves any given medical treatment, be it an OTC pill or an organ transplant. A jury of your peers can determine if you “deserve” treatment based on whether or not you are responsible for bringing this “shame” upon yourself.