Hemlock for Wounded Warriers: The Latest Plan?

 

I'm not likely ever to forget one of Obama's most notorious early attacks on American medical care, his March, 2009 proposal to force wounded warriors to pay for treatment of their combat related injuries, including buying their own prosthetic limbs, through private health insurance held by them or their spouses.

After a public outcry and a dressing down from leaders of veteran groups, who were forced to point out that wounded Vets might not appreciate having to pay for the treatment of injuries they received on the battlefield, Obama backed off his plan in a fit of pique. As reported by Investors Business Daily, the president "refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by [his plan]," and he rubbed salt into veterans' wounds by challenging veterans "to come up with an alternative way to raise revenues" for treatment of combat-related injuries.

My blood still boils every time I have occasion to review that little moment in American history.

Now, Pundit & Pundette have posted some appropriate words (read them all!) concerning a newly released "hurry up and die" advice publication. In July, VA primary care physicians were directed to refer to all of their patients to this publication. From an opinion piece by Jim Towey in The Wall Street Journal:

"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."

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?
One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender.
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").

Towey ends his piece this way:

If President Obama is sincere in stating that he is not trying to cut costs by pressuring the disabled to forgo critical care, one good way to show that commitment is to walk two blocks from the Oval Office and pull the plug on "Your Life, Your Choices." He should make sure in the future that VA decisions are guided by values that treat the lives of our veterans as gifts, not burdens.

"The lives of our veterans" are "gifts, not burdens." Who could say it better than that?
__________