UK smokers say they have 'paid upfront thru taxation' for their treatment, but..!

UK smokers say they have 'paid upfront thru taxation' for their treatment, but....?

don't they realise that the treatment doesn't usually work? According to the Cancer Research website UK 50% of treated lung cancer victims are dead within 16 weeks of diagnosis, 75% are dead within a year. Only 7% of treated lung cancer victims live for 5 years. The treatment is nasty and painful - lung removal, chemotherapy etc. Smokers I know say that by the time they get cancer 'they will be too old to care' - but I find it hard to believe such a horrific death would be faced so lightheartedly? Also, the taxation thing doesn't make sense - I have paid enough tax to get treated after being run over by a bus but I'm not about to go and lie down in the road. Could someone please explain all this, as I can't get any sense out of the smokers I know! (PS for non-UK readers - our 'free at source of treatment' National Health Service (NHS) is paid for thru taxation, and cigarettes are very heavily taxed). Thanks for your thoughts

2 weeks ago
(ps, I never learned to drive and I don't drink - boring I know!) My point is that (a.) the disease really hurts, the fact u have paid to 'treat' it doesn't alter that fact and (b) other human activities like driving are useful to life, whereas cigarettes have no useful purpose!

Smoking does not just cause lung cancer. It causes many conditions and a lot of them are treatable. You can't only treat people who don't smoke, drink alcohol, are fat etc. Everyone has a right to be treated. Would you tell them it was tough luck as they smoked and let them die?