Catholic weekly newspaper The Southern Cross columnist Sarah-Leah Pimentel (“Lesson in humanity from a cat", 20-26 November 2019) writes it's an untenable moral problem to spend money on expensive medical care for animals, as recommended for her friends' ill cat Sparky (an MRI) she cared for while they were away, when many people don't have access to basic medical care. I appreciate she loves Sparky and would do what’s “financially and morally” feasible for him, and I acknowledge that from her writing she’s a compassionate person. But her argument which she couches as a moral dilemma of “how can we justify cutting-edge medical care for animals while thousands of people do not have access to basic care” is specious because it lacks equivalence. As she wonders, “it is not right I have access to the best medical care but the majority battle in the hope they will receive the help they require”. In South Africa 17% of the population with access to private health acco...
Blog on medical and health matters with a focus on the Western Cape's public health system.