New Head of the NHS: Thanos
1st May 2018
Last night I went with my oldest child to see the latest Avengers movie, Avengers: Infinity War, and was struck by the villain of the piece: Thanos. Up until this point, Thanos has been more of a background, shadow villain; someone who supports the active villainy of others through advice and henchmen but refusing to get his hands dirty. (Mild spoilers ahead.)
Now, in this latest installment, his long-game strategy is revealed: he wishes to save the universe by murdering half of its inhabitants, thereby decreasing the demand on all the resources so that the surviving group will have an easier time of it. I have heard this argument before, both in fiction and reality, but this time the rationality of Thanos stood out in a new way to me. As the megalomaniac explained his rationale for his actions, he reminded me of nothing else so much as Great Britain’s National Healthcare Service, especially as concerns Alfie Evans.
The NHS has argued repeatedly that it acted in the best interests of 22-month-old Alfie Evans. How did it choose to act? By overruling the rights and desires of his parents and Alfie’s own right to life by removing this little boy from his respirator and nutrition. Thus, he died, over days, gasping and starving.
The NHS’s officials claim they had the right to let Alfie die because they could not see a way to treat or cure him. It could think of no better way of dealing with this “problem.” Instead of taking up other countries’ (such as Italy’s) offer to take over Alfie’s care, they preferred that if he was going to die, he had better do it on their terms. Not on his terms, since Alfie was too little to ever have an opinion on this serious topic. Not his parents’ terms, when they were begging the doctors not to do this and visiting the Pope personally to implore his help. Not in the worldwide community’s terms, which echoed the same offers of help they proffered before when Charlie Gard, another little boy who also died at the behest of the NHS, was struggling for life. No, it is purely on the NHS’s own terms. They claim, however, that this decision really was in his best interests.
‘Believe us, Comrade, it’s in your own best interest.’