More than that. This is unethical design. It's a design that probably killed people.
This went down a chain of people. CEO. VP. PM. Tech Lead. Developer.
All of them made a choice to kill people for profit.
Every C-level exec that was aware this happened and let it happen should be charged with a single count of involuntary manslaughter for every patient who had an opioid overdose that was prescribed pain medication by this system.
This is not acceptable, and people's heads should roll.
Gun manufacturers? People who build cars that have a known higher fatality rate? People who build swimming pools (look up how many kids die to swimming pools a year)? People who sell unhealthy food? People who make tech/video games that result in less physical activity?
If I manufacture guns, odds are I also own guns.
If I make sports cars, odds are I also like to drive sports cars.
People who build swimming pools swim. People who sell junk food buy junk food. People who make video games play video games.
The people in your examples are all selling things they probably want to be able to buy. Perhaps you disagree with their decisions, but they are acting out of a good-faith belief that the things they make are good.
No one wants to have someone try to get them hooked on opioids.
Follow the Golden Rule.
(Maybe the junk food and video games examples are different, since some foods and games are deliberately addictive.)
Yes and no. I'm not sure who and where sells true junk food; the usual culprit - McD, KFC - sell food that's unhealthy in the long run, but it's also cheap, tasty and quick to get, making it desirable in many different situation.
(Also, frankly, I think McDonald's may be better for you than equivalents from a "normal" restaurant. Large fast food chains are ridiculously optimized, but they have standards to meet and an individual location doesn't have the freedom to screw with it. Meanwhile in a random restaurant, I always have to worry how cheap they get with the ingredients and their process, and whether e.g. the meat I'm getting was actually grilled, or was just microwaved and then decorated with grill marks. I don't know anyone currently working on the "back end" of a typical restaurant, but from second-hand reports I keep hearing, I'm not reassured about quality.)
And "videogames" as a product category is too broad for this consideration. On one end of the spectrum you have beautiful, engaging videogames designed by passionate creators who absolutely build what they'd like to play. On the other end, you have the bottom-feeding Zynga-like garbage that's essentially gambling in disguise, designed from grounds-up to screw players over.
Now, the C levels probably aren't the same, but they are the same in that they aren't the same across industries.
The responsibility ultimately rests with the person who puts the drug in their own body. You can make an argument that their physician is in a position of trust, and that some responsibility lies with their prescribing it.
Extending it out to the workers of the vendor is as silly as extending it out to the workers of the keyboard vendor.
The software can not force people to ingest pills.
It is important to remember that humans, regardless of their level of ignorance, are responsible for themselves and their own actions.
Encouraging people to make bad decisions isn’t the issue at all, even if the final result would not have happened without such encouragement.
The constant push to privatize and let market forces drive medical interactions is CRUSHING trust in the system.
Let's take an example patient, Sally.
Sally goes to see her doctor, she's got some minor knee pain, but nothing serious. As a result of this profit motivated system, her doctor is likely to try to prescribe her expensive pain killers.
She doesn't really think she needs them, but she gets the prescription anyways since she trusted her doctor. Now Sally is actually lucky - no addiction issues, no real problems with the meds. She just decides to stop paying for them after a while since she didn't really think she needed them. AND SHE WAS RIGHT.
Now she's got a nagging thought in the back of her head - Why did my doctor ask me to buy this thing? I didn't need it.
Next time Sally hits the doctors office she's got her kids in tow and the doctor recommends several vaccines. Not super expensive, but not cheap. Normally she'd just trust the doc and say sure. But last time she was burned and paid for something she didn't need.
So this time she decides to do some googling and hits a whole host of anti-vax propaganda. Things that say kids don't need them, they're expensive and risky.
So she opts out.
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We see this happen everywhere in medicine right now. Things like:
- The dentist that "finds" a cavity at the last minute to fill even though everything has been fine, and the patient doesn't normally have cavities.
- The physician that runs a whole slew of expensive tests for a simple issue
- The dermatologist who wants to do a biopsy on the mole that's been fine for years and doesn't look any different.
Each interaction like this - Where the patient feels more like a walking wallet than a person - they erode trust. Rightfully so, in my opinion.
The end result is whole swathes of disillusioned people who no longer trust the medical system. The consequences become staggering for society as a whole when this trust is gone.
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I don't think it's any accident AT ALL that the most common group to believe the anti-vax rhetoric is the upper middle class. They're the patients most likely to have disposable income that can be targeted with schemes like this. And while those people are horribly wrong, their gut instinct is SPOT ON. They're being targeted financially and it's bullshit.
Of course my partner understand how her patients got that way and doesn't blame them. Exactly as you said. It's terrible.
I honestly feel the US healthcare system is a complete joke. I am losing respect for doctors because they are a part of it.
This is a bit off topic, but I recently changed my health plan. I was on a state plan before. I asked the insurance rep what happens when I go to the ER on a state plan in another state. She said, "well if its in an emergency you are fine, but if its not then you will be responsible for 60%" or something crazy. How the hell can I decide what is an emergency? I am not a medical professional. It is complete bullshit to put that on a individual but this is what they want. The insurance company will blame you and say it was not emergency to save money.
Prices should be ‘regulated’ by REAL price transparency and consumer choice! The prices will self regulate based on the market.
AND insurance can be privately bought to protect against the chance that you get stuck with something expensive. Just like insurance against your house burning, car crashing, or dealer getting a blackjack.
The idea that regulating the price through government will lead to more efficient system with lower costs and better outcomes is a fallacy. Even NASA is being outdone by private space exploration. Government regulation simply can not compete with a truly free market where consumers have access to information, prices, and can make decisions for themselves.
CHOICE is what is required to optimize the solution. Regulation is mostly a fallacy. Regulation is required for certain protections, but not a reliable means to get the system to deliver the optimal outcomes and the lowest costs.