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Under this logic, aren't all preventable deaths (no matter how much it costs to prevent that death) the same as murder? Doesn't that technically make all of us guilty of murder if we are not all spending our entire paychecks preventing the deaths of others?

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woodruffw 14 days ago | parent | next [-]

No, I’m talking very specifically about things that were previously funded but are not, for what are nakedly callous reasons.

(There’s no need for logical extremes here: PEPFAR wasn’t a very expensive program.)

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anonym29 14 days ago | parent [-]

Why does this not expand to inexpensive programs that haven't been previously funded, but could be? I've read that we can save lives for a handful of dollars per life in Africa with greater access to medical care, mosquito nets, antimalarial drugs, etc.

If getting rid of existing affordable aid is murder, why is failing to render new affordable aid not? Doesn't this inherently place an incentivization mechanism and inherent preference for the old ways of doing things, when newer ways can be more efficient and save more lives with fewer dollars?

	▲	woodruffw 14 days ago \| parent [-]
		The short answer is that removing the aid you were previously providing is more morally salient than not helping in the first place. Short answers aside, could you stop with the indirection? The original question was whether millions of people could die due to funding cuts. The answer is yes, regardless of your moral views about how you should spend your own money.

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mexicocitinluez 14 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is a false equivalency. No one is saying you need to donate your entire paycheck.

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sorcerer-mar 14 days ago | parent | prev [-]

We're not talking about avoiding all preventable deaths. We're talking about taking life-saving treatment away from people who were being effectively treated at a nominal cost.

Taking treatment away from them in lieu of a very good reason is tantamount to murder. "Empathy is weakness" or "going after the woke mind virus" or "Organization X is a criminal organization [non-evidenced]" or "we need more cushion for tax cuts for the wealth" do not qualify as good reasons.