PEDIATRICS Vol. 55 No. 6 June 1975, pp. 825
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SICK UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE

Lewis Thomas 1

1 The Lives of a Cell (New York: Viking Press, 1974)

. . . In the same sense that our judicial system presumes us to be innocent until proved guilty, a medical-care system may work best, if it starts with the presumption that most people are healthy. Left to themselves, computers may try to do it in the opposite way, taking it as given that some sort of direct, continual, professional intervention is required all the time to maintain the health of each citizen, and we will end up spending all our money on nothing but that. Meanwhile, there is a long list of other things to do if we are to change the way we live together, expecially in our cities, in time. Social health is another kind of problem, more complex and urgent, and there wll be other bills to pay...