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August 3, 2009

Glimpse into Obamacare: Oregon says no to chemotherapy, instead offers assisted suicide

Topics: Political News and commentaries

A chilling look into the catastrophic effect a single-payer system can inflict on an individual!

Ed Morrissey writes:

We knew it would come to this when Oregon insisted on passing its assisted-suicide laws. It doesn't take much for assisted suicide to go from a humane option to a cost-saving device, especially when the state pays for the medical care. One patient in Oregon got a letter that made this all too clear, when in the same letter rejecting her request for life-extending chemotherapy, Oregon offered her "physician-aid-in-dying". In other words, Oregon offered their customer a heapin' helping of death:

As Ed goes on to note:

... the doctor interviewed by the news station seems offended at the suggestion that Oregon would decide to save a few bucks by denying expensive health care and offering a case of hemlock in its place. However, saving money was the raison d'etre of single-payer systems, and the incentives all drive towards that decision. Single-payer systems have to handle medical services as a shortage market, rationing them by using "comparative effectiveness" paradigms to determine who gets medical attention, and who gets "physician-aid-in-dying" instead of it.

The woman who drew the short end of the stick in this case wonders who these people think they are. They think they know better than us who needs to live and die. Has that lesson still not been made clear?

If the message isn't yet clear, we need only hear what Obama himself has said: Obama tells mother of elderly woman instead of a pacemaker we might give old ladies a pain pill:

As we've previously posted, the video doesn't leave much doubt as to what Obamacare has in-store for the elderly!

As Dr. Helen points out:

Heart arrhythmias can be absolutely terrifying leading to panic attacks and/or fatigue so crippling that one cannot get off the couch. A pain killer is not going to help. But maybe that's the idea. Obama is so determined to get his health care plan passed--no matter what the consequences-- that he doesn't care how or if people suffer, especially older people.

So is Obama heartless, mean or just plain ignorant? His response to Jane Sturm (in the above video) leaves me wondering which.

To which Ed Morrissey added in an earlier post: "No more heartlesss, mean, or ignorant than the bureaucrats who will eventually make these decisions under ObamaCare, using their pocket Comparative Effectiveness Charts.

And don't think for a minute that Comparative Effectiveness Charts weren't used in the Oregan case in which the woman was essentially offered a pill of death instead of pills of life that cost more.

Related must-read: Obama's Advance Care Planning: code words for 'euthanasia'

Posted by Richard at August 3, 2009 10:43 AM

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