Healthcare reform - something to look forward to in old age.

St. Euthanasia

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I have friends who say they will end their lives rather than allow themselves to become incapacitated by illness and old age - they believe assisted suicide is the way to go. I suspect many Americans are coming around to this way of thinking - especially younger people accustomed to entitlements, worried old people will use up all of their benefits. Pro-life folks have seen this coming - and whether or not the final draft of the U.S. health care initiative will include such 'end of life care' for seniors, the issue can not be easily dismissed precisely because it has already been placed on the table.

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I'm aware of conferences at local medical facilities as far back as the 1980's discussing the viability of euthanasia for terminally ill patients and the elderly suffering from dementia. No wonder the issue has been raised in the current health care debate. It stands to reason euthanasia and assisted suicide is emerging as an inevitable proposition considering our unstable economy and the federal deficit - not to mention dwindling medicare and social security funds.

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I think one reason Obama wants to push the health care bill through so fast is because he doesn't want the average American to know the details, and although some in Congress and the media are accusing conservatives of playing the euthanasia card as a scare tactic, some lawmakers are confirming that the euthanasia devil is indeed in the details.

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Two Republican leaders in the House of Representatives are confirming reports that the health care restructuring bill the House is currently considering promotes euthanasia. A leading patients rights advocate is worried about the effects of the legislation.

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Betsy McCaughey, the former New York lieutenant government who is now a patient's rights advocate, notes that the government-run health care plan would require end of life counseling for seniors.

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The counseling, she says, would be focused on telling seniors how to end their lives sooner.

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In a statement sent to LifeNews.com House Republican Leader John Boehner Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter confirm those fears.

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"Section 1233 of the House-drafted legislation encourages health care providers to provide their Medicare patients with counseling on ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration’ and other end of life treatments,'" the pair say.

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That section "may place seniors in situations where they feel pressured to sign end of life directives they would not otherwise sign."

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"This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law. At a minimum this legislative language deserves a full and open public debate – the sort of debate that is impossible to have under the politically-driven deadlines Democratic leaders have arbitrarily set for enactment of a health care bill," they state.

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Boehner and McCotter are especially concerned about the provision given that Oregon and Washington have legalized assisted suicide and Montana has given conditional approval depending on the outcome of a state Supreme Court decision.

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“With three states having legalized physician-assisted suicide, this provision could create a slippery slope for a more permissive environment for euthanasia, mercy-killing and physician-assisted suicide because it does not clearly exclude counseling about the supposed benefits of killing oneself," they say. - Source