Perhaps ‘death panel’ is the wrong term, how about ‘steering committee’

There’s been much buzz about the “death panel” that ObummerCare will inevitably create. Perhaps “death panels” is a bit too harsh. Maybe we should call it a death “steering committee”, as in steering the elderly and disabled toward death.

Sound crazy? Well, it’s happening right now to the very people to whom we all owe an enormous debt of gratitude.

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, “Your Life, Your Choices.” It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA’s preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated “Your Life, Your Choices.” [...]

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to “shake the blues.” There is a section which provocatively asks, “Have you ever heard anyone say, ‘If I’m a vegetable, pull the plug’?” There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as “I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being,” “I am a severe financial burden on my family” and that the vet’s situation “causes severe emotional burden for my family.”

When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel? [...]

I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update “Your Life, Your Choices” between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as “Compassion and Choices”).

This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable. Worse, a July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to “Your Life, Your Choices.” Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients. America’s 24 million veterans deserve better.

Is it really such a stretch to imagine this sort of “steering” for the rest of us? Are those of us who are truly concerned about these “unintented consequences” crazy?  (I know – I shouldn’t be giving these people the benefit of the doubt.)

It even seems that some liberals are starting to see the light. Nat Hentoff is down right fearful of this administration, for the first time in his life. (Via Lucianne)

I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him. I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration. President Obama’s desired health care reform intends that a federal board (similar to the British model) — as in the Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation in a current Democratic bill — decides whether your quality of life, regardless of your political party, merits government-controlled funds to keep you alive. Watch for that life-decider in the final bill. It’s already in the stimulus bill signed into law.

Is all of this “misinformation” as the White House accuses? Or have reasonable people looked at the evidence and come to a reasonable conclusion?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 9:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.