Midday: Bioethicist Arthur Caplan

At 11 a.m., bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania will discuss the latest controversies in medical ethics as well as the new Michael Moore movie Sicko. Caplan is the author of a new book, Smart Mice, Not So Smart People.

Mr. Caplan says that vaccines do not cause autism. It is true in the general population that a tiny number of individuals do have significant reactions to vaccines. Could autism be a condition, that while not caused by vaccines is made worse by vaccines. Many children treated biomedically for autism do are clearly not cured but much much better. Would Mr Caplan please comment.

We have the best health care money can buy? No money? Market forces dictate you will die. Compared to other nations, our health system in indefensible ethically, yet "medical ethicists" continue to justify it. The fact that we are a big country and the Bush administration is fundamentally incompetent does not mean we can't do it. We did Social Security. We did Medicare. We did any number of wars without assigning responsibility to each state. The big insurance and pharmaceutical companies have no problem running national programs. Maybe if we hired them and made them the administrators of a National Health Care system without the pressure to maximize private profit, they could do it. Until we do, market forces will continue to erode our national and individual health care.