Cassell on Callahan: Survival vs. Functional Lives

I liked this language in Eric Cassell's letter-to-the-editor in the Nov-Dec Hastings Center Report:  

[T[he contemporary goals of medicine remain disease-oriented, not focused on sick persons.  Success . . . is marked by survival. . . .  But aside from soldiers in combat, most people do not awaken bent on survival.  They want to live functional lives and enjoy well-being sufficient to achieve their goals and purposes. . . .  [T]he current individualism we prize requires a stable nation that we are unlikely to achieve without shared responsibility and reigned-in-greed.