http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/02/is-making-patient-dumping-illegal.html medical blog Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:15:05 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/02/is-making-patient-dumping-illegal.html/comment-page-1#comment-72260 Anonymous Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:46:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2007/02/is-making-patient-dumping-illegal-the-answer.html#comment-72260 The idea that discharging a homeless person to the street is improper "dumping" is a result of the belief (too common) that a hosptial is completely responsible for a person admitted to their facility rather than only for their medical care. It is paternalistic and, to the degree it is bought into, antiliberty. If I choose to live on the street, or in a shack in the woods with no fascilities, it is neither my hosptital's problem to remedy nor their right to deny it. If I will die of exposure and self-neglect without nursing home care, well, better men than me have chosen worse deaths--some for my freedom to live as I wish. The idea that discharging a homeless person to the street is improper “dumping” is a result of the belief (too common) that a hosptial is completely responsible for a person admitted to their facility rather than only for their medical care. It is paternalistic and, to the degree it is bought into, antiliberty. If I choose to live on the street, or in a shack in the woods with no fascilities, it is neither my hosptital’s problem to remedy nor their right to deny it. If I will die of exposure and self-neglect without nursing home care, well, better men than me have chosen worse deaths–some for my freedom to live as I wish.

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