DR HAWKING AND THE NHS

by RAY FLEMING
AMONG the sixteen people to whom Barack Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour, at the White House yesterday was Britain's Stephen Hawking, the world's foremost theoretical physicist who has achieved his academic eminence despite daunting disabilities. By a strange coincidence Professor Hawking was also in the news yesterday for a different reason, finding himself at the centre of the fiercely fought debate about President Obama's health care proposals which many US opponents say are based on Britain's National Health Service. An American publication, Investors Business Daily, wrote in an editorial: “People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK where the NHS would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.” Dr Hawking quickly put out this statement: “I wouldn't be here today if it