I agree with Clayton Cramer in thinking that Arthur Kellerman's desire for the government to ban private ownership of automated external defibrillators is ridiculous. Dr. Kellerman gives a few silly reasons that illustrate the leftist mindset:
On the other hand, AEDs might make real families in a real emergencies waste precious time, says Arthur Kellermann, MD, MPH, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Atlanta's Emory University."Having an AED in the home might make a person less likely to call 911...," Kellerman says. "It might make a family focus their efforts on frantically looking for the thing -- 'Is it under the bed? In the closet?' -- rather than calling 911. We don't know. That's why more studies are needed." ...
Kellerman says. "If you have $2,000 burning a hole in your pocket, join a health club; get help stopping smoking; get help lowering your cholesterol. Sure, AEDs have saved hundreds of lives. But we have saved hundreds of thousands of lives with primary prevention of heart disease. And we don't know whether having an AED in the home will make a family less interested in prevention."
I don't know about you, but I'd rather choose my own risks than have the government do it for me. I can train my friends and family to call 911 first and search for the AED second, but if there's no AED to be found I can't train them to deliver electric shocks with their bare hands.
And this illustrates one of the defining characteristics of the left: they think you're stupid and need to be protected from yourself, and they're willing to endanger and enslave everyone to protect idiots. Sure, smart people who call 911 before looking under the bed for the AED will be made less safe if they can't own an AED, but hypothetical stupid people will be protected from having to make a decision. Even if that theory is correct -- but who would be dumb enough not to call 911 immediately? should they be allowed to live? -- who cares? There's no reason to restrict my liberty and my ability to protect myself just because some other people are stupid. Plus, should we as a society be making decisions that increase the survivability of morons at the expense of everyone else? Won't that breed a society of imbeciles? (Look around, it may be too late.)
When I first read this entry, I thought it was a parody of Dr. Kellerman's position on guns. It was a parody, in a sense, but apparently not an intended one.
His position also shows a remarkable degree of chauvanism against a large portion of our population. There are lots of places in America where you can dial 911 and have the best medical help that the American Medical Juggernaut can provide -- in about an hour, because the closest EMTs are stationed 45 miles away.
His thinking is most certainly ivory tower city-dweller thinking. There are a lot of people who have to know how to do for themselves in the golden hour, because they are the only ones who can get there in the golden hour.
I wish these AEDs were around 14 years ago -- it might have saved my father, who died of a heart attack at the age of 38. The ambulance did get there in good time (10 minutes?), but let's face it - if your heart has stopped for 10 minutes, you're not likely to be coming back.
What an ass.
Let's see -- people shouldn't have seat belts or car air bags, because they might not learn safe driving techniques... people shouldn't have fire extinguishers in their kitchens, because they may waste time in not calling the fire department... there are so many ways I can extend this idiotic argument.
If people are really this dumb, are they likely to have 2 grand to spare for an AED? Seems like a problem that would be pretty non-existent.