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September 3, 2009

Two Brief Telling Questions On Obamacare For Barack Obama

Topics: Political News and commentaries

As reported in the Telegraph today, a group of experts in the UK who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients under NHS care are being wrongly judged as close to death. It seems that family and friends are witnessing the denial of fluids and food to so-called "dying" patients, as determined by the "gold standard" of using a "tick-box" method (checkoff list) to forecast that a patient is dying, and that syringe drivers are being used to give continuous terminal sedation without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.

And according to the Telegraph, the issue is causing a national crisis in care:

The Government is rolling out a new treatment pattern of palliative care into hospitals, nursing and residential homes. It is based on experience in a Liverpool hospice. If you tick all the right boxes in the Liverpool Care Pathway, the inevitable outcome of the consequent treatment is death.

As a result, a nationwide wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients. Syringe drivers are being used to give continuous terminal sedation, without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.

It is disturbing that in the year 2007-2008, 16.5 per cent of deaths came about after terminal sedation. Experienced doctors know that sometimes, when all but essential drugs are stopped, "dying" patients get better.

With this story in mind, I'm reminded of 3 truly frightening czars appointed by Barack Obama, and his promise that there are no "death panels" under Obamacare. It seems to me that to know his policies and who influences his thinking, we should look at his advisors, particularly those relating to healthcare that he calls czars.

Before getting to my two brief questions for Mr. Obama, first the 3 Czars and their particular interests and areas of expertise that are of concern here (via Catholic Exchange):

Dr. "Zeke" Emmanuel and the Complete Lives System

Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel works in the White House Office of Management and Budget as a health-policy advisor and he is a member of the Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. Dr. Emmanuel is one of the pillars of Obama's reform. However Dr. Emmanuel has stated repeatedly in public forums such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that doctors were driving up health-care costs because they value the Hippocratic Oath as "an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of cost or effect on others."

Instead, Dr. Emmanuel raises the possibility of a new ethical system, the "Complete Lives System " that would ration care away from the elderly, away from infants, and away from human beings judged unable to rationally participate in society (such as those with dementia), in favor of those aged 15-44, who have the best chance "to live a complete life."

John Holdren: Not Even Born Babies are Human ... Yet
John Holdren is President Obama's Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Beck says he is another key player in Obama's health-care reform. But Holdren has a life-long obsession with population control and has written two books outlining a host of options to deal with what he sees as a global crisis of "human overpopulation."

(Glenn) Beck points out that Holdren has this to say about who is human and who is not, and babies do not qualify as human beings: "The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experience and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being."

Holdren co-authored a college textbook called "Ecoscience" in which he advanced the idea that forced abortion and sterilization of women is justifiable under the US Constitution, and that sterilizing agents could be added to the drinking water in order to curb the growth of human populations.

Cass Sunstein and Rationing by QALY
Cass Sunstein, Obama's appointed advisor to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, shares opinions in common with Dr. Emmanuel and John Holdren when it comes to health-care rationing and the dignity of the human person. If Sunstein's appointment is not rejected by the Senate, then Sunstein will oversee the OIRA, which creates government regulations for federal laws.

Sunstein advocates rationing based on "quality-adjusted life years" (QALY), meaning that the government would evaluate statistically whether a person's life is worth the cost of living.

Sunstein is a radical animal rights thinker, who believes that animals such as dolphins and whales should have legal representation. Sunstein counts Princeton philosopher Peter Singer among his closest friends. Singer believes that children under the age of seven do not have sufficient rationality to count as human beings, and for that reason parents could commit infanticide.

These 3 men are among Barack Obama's closest advisors on healthcare, and are designing America's new government-controlled health-care system, whether it occurs initially or is "triggered" later on - an event that is certain to occur eventually. The philosophies and interests of this inner-circle of advisors clearly undermines Barack Obama's "no death panel" promise, especially in regard to judging which human lives have dignity - or even qualify for life at all, and who will be given one of those "syringe driver of continuous terminal sedation" mentioned in the above Telegraph report.

Now for my brief telling question for Mr. Obama: If you have no intention of there ever being "death panel" or tick-box decisions made for America's seniors, why have you appointed these particular men to such influential positions? In other words, Mr. Obama, why are they there?

Related: 10 lies Obamacare told me

Posted by Richard at September 3, 2009 11:42 AM



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