Originally Posted by seretogis

First, an interesting story to provide a little context for this discussion.

LINK


So, this new strain of HIV progresses to AIDS faster and is resistant to current treatments. Considering how difficult it is to contract HIV in the first place, do we really have much of a social responsibility to work towards helping irresponsible drug-users that routinely have unprotected sex with multiple partners? At what point do we sit back and let nature take its course with the refuse of the species, rather than forcing the hand of nature to use sharper swords sotospeak? Where do we draw the line, if at all?

Personally, I am interested in protecting the general populace, not those who intentionally and repeatedly put themselves and others in harms way. This applies to more than disease -- if someone gets drunk and hops into their car and drives into a tree, that's a shame, but they are not worth saving over the child that he didn't even notice hitting on the way to the tree. Now, the obvious question is "Who decides who to help?" but ideally this would be decided by anyone and everyone -- the innocent bystander, the judge, and the surgeon. Ultimately any blame would rest on the shoulders of fate and natural selection.