Crazy British Doctor

Let me apologize for not posting here more. I don't even deserve posting privileges any more...but at least I have a doozy for y'all now.

A physician has proposed that smokers, being medically and now socially undesirable, should not necessarily receive surgery (h/t: the Mayor)

Smokers should be denied surgery on the NHS unless they kick their habit, a leading doctor has said.

In a debate published today in the British Medical Journal, Professor Matthew Peters, the head of thoracic medicine at the Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney, Australia, claims that five non- smokers could be operated on for the cost of four smokers, and that their outcomes would be better.

About a thousand patients a day are admitted to NHS hospitals in England for smoking-related diseases, at a cost of £1.7 billion a year.

Imagine a society where doctors can decide who "deserves" surgery or life-saving procedures and who doesn't. I'm sure we wouldn't stop at smokers--there are several segments of society that put themselves at risk for medical issues. Surely doctors are the ones who should decide who deserves medical treatment.