Cottleston Pie

Abraham Verghese wrote an article Hard Cures in the NYTimes Magazine.

I agree for the most part with Verghese's article. What he suggests implicitly to be part of the problem is something that I think is a huge problem in a more general sense: people have a hard time coming to grips with probability, judging risk, and being prepared for failure that may come even in an extremely unrisky situation -- prediction (the doc says, "an appendectomy is routine surgery") is never perfect and even when that uncertainty is well known and acknowledged (the doc warns, "as with any surgery, there is a risk of complications, including a risk of death"), it's in one ear and out the other for most people, and then when the failure comes and complications arise, people are taken by surprise and feel put upon.

Also, while Verghese's suggested solution my have merit, I am inspired to suggest a corollary to Murphy's Law: What humans can corrupt, they will. That said, it may be better than the status quo.