Reinforced by a combined 3.2 billion dollars of investment from leading US technology companies Google and Intel, and cable television companies Comcast and Time Warner, Clearwire is set to build WiMAX networks across the country.

According to its proponents, WiMAX is changing how people access the Internet, and redefining the concept of wireless communication. They are even claiming that WiMAX may make cable and phone line Internet obsolete.

We here at Technews have time and again been hearing such fantastic claims, usually made by IT marketers and some over-inspired members of the media. Sometimes, much-publicized technologies live up to their promises. Most of the times, unfortunately, they remain stuck in vaporware realm.

One thing going for the WiMAX bandwagon is that it has a success story which could bolster its claims. In South Korea, some 150,000 subscribers have logged on for WiMAX mobile services.

Recently a task force composed of influential physicians in the United States has come up with proposed guidelines for hospitals to determine which patients will receive lifesaving care in a pandemic or other disaster. According to the Associated Press story, the list of recommendations is envisioned to help hospitals allocate medical resources and personnel, which will certainly be scarce in such situations.

The list of recommendations, some would say it is the Grim Reaper’s checklist, will tell emergency care personnel which patients should not receive potentially life-saving attention and care. The list includes senior citizens, severely hurt victims of trauma, severely burned patients, and patients with severe dementia.

The list also specifies that people with chronic diseases including diabetes and advanced heart failure, and those with mental disorders should not receive care.

The list, which would have made Adolf Hitler’s health ministry officials proud, appears in an article published in the May 2008 edition of the American College of Chest Physicians’ Chest journal.

At first glance, there seems to be nothing wrong with such a utilitarian idea of making the most of scarce medical care resources by allocating them to those who are most likely to survive. After all, why should doctors waste precious medicines and hospital supplies on a patient whose heart could conk out anytime? But somewhere buried in that list, there must be millions of ethical and humanity questions and issues.

As a father to two boys with autism, I strongly condemn the idea that my sons and the other children like them would be denied life-saving care. I dread to even consider that in times of disasters physicians would readily abandon and forget their Hippocratic ideals.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.