s. Though we live longer today, the proportion of life spent in ill health has increased (Barsky, 1988).
While these two trends are well documented, a third factor ban arisen from actions being taken by government today, the rationing of health-care resources. Though the evidence is not yet fully developed, there is the view that America's culture now holds the value of life less seriously then it once did. Under this trend, the socially burdensome patients will be targeted for elimination, victims of the cost-benefit analysis. An example of this is the new law passed in Oregon allocating only so much public funding to organ transplants and the allocation strategy under Medicare (Callahan, 1988, p. 398). The proper distribution of technological resources, effected by an exploding cost factor, will become a leading issue for the 1990s (Office of Technology Assessment, 1987).
Last, for most physicians, the course of least resistance is simply to treat, and the more aggressive their treatment, the safer they feel. Patients, aware of this trend, which adds to their anxiety about costs and quality of life, have begun to demand more power in determining their own treatment.
Evaluation of these trends would lead many to argue that only acceptance of a policy of active euthanasia, will prevent the possibility of overtreatment while at the name tine allowing better allocation of resources to the masses. However, as in all moral and ethical issues, arguments can be found on all sides, including "Right-to-Life" ("Pro-Life")
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