TYT Network
Libertarians and right-wingers are convinced that de-regulation is always a good thing. But what about for surgery?
According to the BBC, when British woman Joy Williams went into the SP Clinic in Bangkok last October, she must have believed she was about to undergo a straightforward cosmetic operation, at a very reasonable price. She must have believed it would be at a modern facility which has been widely used – and praised – by other patients from overseas.
But her wounds became infected and she died under anaesthetic as the clinic tried to correct what had gone wrong.
Her doctor, Sompob Sansiri, has been charged with recklessly causing her death, and the SP Clinic closed down. It turned out he was not licensed to carry out surgery.
Ms Williams was one of thousands of foreigners who come to Thailand every year for cosmetic surgery.
The prices are typically a third of what they cost in Europe or the US, the medical facilities are often first-class, and some Thai doctors have developed specialist expertise in some cosmetic procedures. However, this is not always the case.
OK, Fine. 
There is a good and bad side to have regulations. The most important is to protect citizens’ needs.
Thank you for your comment. You understand that things are not always “black and white” and “de-regulation” is not always the solution for every problem.
Though things are not always black and white, you need to learn to tell what is right and wrong. When a person is wrong, I do not need to agree and follow to their doings. Try to see their good points too.
Who’s to say that the government regulatory agencies know what they’re talking about? How do we know that they’re acting based on the best research available? That’s putting a lot of faith in government that may not be warranted. We’ve seen many instances in the past where these agencies get it wrong. Look at public health. See my blog linked below for a brief overview on the inadequacy of some of their recommendations.
Its on us as consumers, as reasonably intelligent citizens with access to many sources of information, to make informed decisions and live with the results. The government can’t eliminate risk from everything we do in life by regulating every industry. We have to give ourselves as individuals a little more credit and responsibility and remove those things from the hands of a bloated, stubborn, and often incompetent government.
http://www.skeptictaproom.wordpress.com
I think most regulations are done in good faith and are meant to protect people. Sure, sometimes there may be incompetent people who create some over-regulation.
But that doesn’t mean the big bad government wants to put you in a “hobbit home” and take away your golf courses…
You’re assuming that “good faith” will result in regulations that will “protect” people. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, so goes the saying. Maybe that’s apt here in some way. I’m not a literary person so I don’t know. But interfering with our lives in the name of our protection doesn’t mean we will actually be “protected,” whatever that means.
Even if government regulation protects the public from undue harm, if it save our lives, improves our health, improves our living conditions, improves our financial security, the question now becomes: do we want to live this way? Paying exorbitant amounts in income taxes to a massive, overreaching government that has it’s hands in every aspect of our lives? Funding a nanny state that might not be as qualified as we hope.
I think most people get hired into their jobs by skilled people. Government regulators are for the most part skilled and and hired by skilled people. They’re not out to “get you.”
Well, I for one would like oversight and regulation on surgery and don’t want a person with a fake license to put me under the knife, like in this video.
It’s just not all “black and white.”
I’d be more worried about the NSA or police than some guy who wants to make sure that doctors don’t have fake credentials…