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Charlatan - an interesting point.
The general knee-jerk reaction seems to be that smokers don't deserve treatment for ill effects brought on by smoking. Some would carry this over to those who drink alcohol. But let's take the whole devil's advocate routine a step further...
You've brought up obesity. Often obesity is caused by a largely sedentery lifestyle, coupled with a poor diet. These people have the means to rectify their disorder, yet choose not to. This disorder causes myriad health issues. Should that obese person who doesn't get off the couch be treated for high blood pressure, high cholestorol, hypertension and heart disease brought on by their lifestyle?
Or how about those who develop diabetes from a diet with too much sugar in it? Do these people deserve treatment?
AIDs is easily preventable, using screening and proper protection, coupled with abstinence where those two aren't available. Does an AIDs patient deserve treatment?
How about the thousands of people who cause themselves injury daily doing stupid things? Injuries that are easily preventable if these people stop and think? One could argue that every carpenter who steps on a nail and has to get a tetanus shot, every butcher who slices his thumb and needs stitches, every warehouse worker with back injuries due to improper lifting techniques and even amateur athletes who pull muscles and tear ligaments due to improper warm-up routines are a burden on the health care system. Why should I be made to pay for the stupidity of these people?
Smoking is a choice I've made. There are those who would argue that it isn't a very wise one. I have my reasons for doing so, as have been stated. Given that I'm a relatively light smoker and I'm likely to quit before I turn thirty, my odds of having any long-term ill effects are minimal. Am I any less deserving of treatment than any of the above?
Smoking is often demonized and I've heard the argument you make before. The reality is, there are a great many conditions and injuries that are easily preventable and/or are a direct result of a person's lifestyle choices. The greater possibility of lung cancer due to smoking is just one. Can you really say that smokers are less deserving of treatment than any of the above? I reckon if we're going to persecute one group for making a lifestyle choice that they're well within their rights to make, we would have to do the same to all of them, no?
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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said
- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame
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