There has been a lot of talk about end-of-life counseling lately, with people like Sarah Palin claiming that the Obama administration has a section on “death panels” in the healthcare bill. Supporters of the bill claim that there is no such thing, though they don’t deny that the government would pay doctors to offer end-of-life counseling to their patients. In a healthcare reform bill that is touted by Obama to be all about cutting the costs of healthcare, giving incentive for doctors, whose very job is to preserve life, to nudge patients toward ending their life rather than undergoing expensive treatment is more than a little tasteless. Sadly, however, this is nothing new. As stated by Jim Towey in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed column, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been treating our brave soldiers that way for a while.
The VA’s unofficial living will, an end-of-life planning document called “Your Life, Your Choices,” is being circulated throughout their hospitals and nursing homes across the country. In the beginning, it was given to any debilitated or aging veterans, but since last month the VA has instructed that it is to be given to all patients along with counseling from the healthcare practitioner.
While suggesting that someone write a living will may not be immoral, “Your Life, Your Choices” is written in such a way as to steer the patients toward death, full of leading questions and statements about the suffering patients would undergo as well as the burden they would place on their family if they remained alive.
There is a section titled “What Makes Your Life Worth Living,” in which various conditions are listed and the patient is to check a box with answers of “difficult, but acceptable,” “worth living, but just barely,” or “not worth living.” To their credit, there is also a box for “can’t answer now.” Some of the conditions listed are that the patient “can only get around in a wheelchair” and “spend all day at home.” The former is insulting to anyone confined to a wheelchair and the latter describes my state when I was unemployed.
It gets worse. There are 3 conditions that are listed to make the patients feel guilty if they choose life, stating that the patient “caused severe emotional burden for my family,” “can no longer contribute to my family’s well being” and is “a severe financial burden on my family.” The intent of those statements is to make it clear to patients that choosing life is selfish and would hurt the ones they love.
There is even one condition that says “I cannot seem to ‘shake the blues.’” I was unable to “shake the blues” for almost a year once. If, during that time, someone had asked me the leading question of if I felt my life was worth living, I probably would have said no, and I have never suffered anything nearly as traumatic as the experiences of our wounded veterans.
The document was first published in 1997 and was written by Dr. Robert Pearlman, who is an advocate for physician-assisted suicide. The Bush administration, in one of those rare moments of good sense, ended its use by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The document was then rewritten in 2007. There were no religious or disability advocates on the panel that rewrote the document. The new version lists only one organization as an additional resource for patients: Compassion and Choices, the right-to-die advocates formerly known as the Hemlock Society. That group, according to their own website, devotes itself to finding legal and legislative initiatives for euthanasia and “assert constitutional protection for aid in dying.” The document does not attempt to balance that out by also recommending a pro-life organization.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration reinstituted “Your Life, Your Choices” as the unofficial living will presented to all patients in VA hospitals and nursing homes. To treat our brave veterans, who risked their lives protecting the life and liberty of Americans everywhere, as burdens who are a drain on their families and the government is despicable.
Even if the “death panels” in Obama’s healthcare bills are fictional, as the supporters claim, given his government’s treatment of our veterans, I am not convinced they don’t see nudging disabled, sick and elderly patients toward death as a good way to cut costs. If the Obama administration really wants to assure the people that they won’t push euthanasia, then they need to prove it by removing this heinous document from the VA.
Also recommended:
The truth about death counseling (Charles Krauthammer column)
Healthcare reform that would actually work
Comments
This booklet does NOT push an end to life. My goodness, why are people like you lying about this? I first saw this booklet in 2005 when my dad received a copy. It is designed to make sure before ANYONE signs directives they understand the consequences.
Also, when you say, "The document does not attempt to balance that out by also recommending a pro-life organization," did you protest the gag rule when doctors were prohibited from mentioning the option of abortion but mentioned the option of adoption for unintended pregnancies? I mean where was the balance without the gag rule? Or, do you pick and choose your "balances"?
"It gets worse. There are 3 conditions that are listed to make the patients feel guilty if they choose life, stating that the patient “caused severe emotional burden for my family,” “can no longer contribute to my family’s well being” and is “a severe financial burden on my family.” The intent of those statements is to make it clear to patients that choosing life is selfish and would hurt the ones they love."
It is also selfish for so-called "prolifers", who are complete strangers to me, to prohibit me from exercising an option of physician assisted suicide if I have Stage 4 prostrate cancer.
Kind of reminds me of soylent green. 80% of a person'e health care costs occur in the last six months of life.
Now you understand how universal health can cut costs. Do you want someone from DC deciding when your time is up?
RLD, I don't want anyone from DC deciding when my time is up NOR do I want any religious organization (e.g., Catholic Church) deciding when my time is up. It's amazing that the Catholic Church and others oppose voluntary physician assisted suicide, even when safeguards are in place for those who DON'T belong to those churches. Therein lies the hypocrisy. Now, of course, while the government isn't permitted (save Oregon and Washington) to allow physician assisted suicide, it still can be sought underground as at least 20,000 physicians in this country will do so in secret. I just get frustrated, however, that the Catholic Church or other churches think they have the right to dictate my end of life decisions and the methods. Such hypocrisy.
Oh...my...God.
Wow, can you twist an innocent document into something sinister. Have you never read a stupidly worded document written by some idiot minion and approved of by some rushed, brainless supervisor?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
I'll tell you what. You are ONLY willing to believe the government suddently wants to kill people because A BLACK MAN IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Why else are you being so obtuse about this subject, tell me?
Especially given that this particular document was WRITTEN BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION!!!
As God is our judge, you will get yours someday for politicizing and fearmongering with life and death!
Thanks for your comments, Bill. I share your outrage. Fox News took the exact same, stupid, biased, take-advantage-of-the-uneducated-and-elderly approach as this writer.
Shame on you all!
Ahhhh! I SEE now. At the bottom of the page it says: Clarity Digital Group LLC d/b/a Examiner.com (d/b/a means "Doing Business As").
A quick search for just who Clarity Digital Group is finds the interesting news that "Clarity Media Group recently announced that the company has purchased The Weekly Standard from [Fox News owner] Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, according to an internal press release." And guess who owns Clarity? Why, Philip Anschutz...
And who is Philip Anschutz, besides being listed by Forbes as one of the 40 richest Americans, a Republican donor and supporter of George W. Bush's administration, and active patron of a number of religious and conservative causes?
"Entirely funded by billionaire Philip Anschutz, The Foundation for a Better Life is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2000 to promote behavioral values which IT [emphasis added by me] sees as positive.."
Hey, do you think they'll leave my posts up for others to read?
Hah, so let me do this obscenely biased article one better:
ARTICLE from Glossy News:
Members of The Foundation for a Better Life, that do-good group that makes you puke whenever you see their commercials, were caught selling crack and crystal meth to schoolchildren in suburban Philadelphia early yesterday afternoon. The search was quickly expanded, headquarters were raided, and the sale of drugs proved to be endemic to the foundation.
“Hey, how do you think we’re supposed to make money, eh?” asked one member as he was carted away. The Foundation sponsors those pukey-sick commercials where kids do nice things for each other and the elderly. Yeah right! How about starting the Foundation for Living in the Real World, where that old lady would mace you the moment you stood up to offer her your seat, huh? Where’s that?
NOTE: Here's my "one better": This writer misleads you with this article, just like I just did. Glossy News is a FAKE, SATIRE website! Gotcha!
Hah, so let me do this obscenely biased article one better:
ARTICLE from Glossy News:
Members of The Foundation for a Better Life, that do-good group that makes you puke whenever you see their commercials, were caught selling crack and crystal meth to schoolchildren in suburban Philadelphia early yesterday afternoon. The search was quickly expanded, headquarters were raided, and the sale of drugs proved to be endemic to the foundation.
“Hey, how do you think we’re supposed to make money, eh?” asked one member as he was carted away. The Foundation sponsors those pukey-sick commercials where kids do nice things for each other and the elderly. Yeah right! How about starting the Foundation for Living in the Real World, where that old lady would mace you the moment you stood up to offer her your seat, huh? Where’s that?
NOTE: Here's my "one better": This writer misleads you with this article, just like I just did. Glossy News is a FAKE, SATIRE website! Gotcha!
Of course the shills for the health care profiteers don't want people to even be able to find out what their end of life options are -- because that forced ignorance increases those profits by prolonging the suffering of those beyond recovery and often in profound pain and torturous discomfort. If a person simply wants to find out what his end of life treatment options are -- why do you insist on denying him or her that right?
When I first started hearing about the bills before Congress, I was horrified. How could politicians be writing laws like this -- but then when I investigated further, I soon realized that there was a shameless campaign of lies and distortion issuing forth from the very vested interests who continue to rake in obscene profits from the suffering of others.
The one commendable thing this column did was provide a link to the actual document, "Your Life, Your Choices." There is no way to know whether to trust secondary sources of information except to compare them with the primary sources. Having done so, I have concluded that those on the right who have been wringing their hands over this document most vociferously are engaged in a campaign of deliberate distortion. Some who read this may disagree, but they will have no basis for doing so until they've done their homework by actually reading "Your Life, Your Choices" with an open mind and at least a little bit of understanding of the purpose of advance care planning.
shameful
Interestingly, this document is put forth and presented to men and women who are having to consider a multitude of issues before deployment...from the mundane tasks such as "Who will cut the grass & help with the kids soccer team?" to "Who has my Power of Attorney & will I be financially ok?" Then, we get to hit them w/"If I am horribly maimed or injured should I live?" Nothing like preparing our soldiers to deploy with that initial blow to the gut! Then, better still they come back with a tragedy & we repeat...Are you worth it? Interesting that some choose to argue [against the military] in context of the increase of military related suicides & have chosen to leave this little booklet out. Perhaps that is why the Bush Administration quit using it? Maybe that is why it was reinstated?
Obama himself said that allowing his grandmother a hip replacement surgery might not have been the proper thing to do because of her age and condition. Don't forget Obama's answer to the lady about her 100 year old mother getting a pacemaker. He said she should just take a pain pill. Remember? Ask residents of the U. K. who is the first to be denied treatment when care is rationed. I always find it incomprehensible that you lefties can ignore all facts to support your agenda.
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