Originally Posted By ecdc I'm not starting this to be a tool to Donny, but to raise an important issue. Sarah Palin rekindled death panels today in her Wall Street Journal op-ed. This notion of death panels is insidious and downright evil, IMO. The fact is, humans living to old ages is a relatively new concept. Historically, people just didn't live that long due to disease, work accidents, etc. You might occasionally have someone in the village who makes it to a ripe old age, but it was rare. We now have a huge population of people whose minds are still active but whose bodies aren't lasting - or vice-versa. And advancing medical technology allows us to keep people alive for almost as long as we want; we can force hearts to keep beating and lungs to keep drawing air. End-of-life decisions are extremely personal, important, and increasingly widespread. When my own grandfather was diagnosed with cancer at age 87, he had to decide if he wanted to undergo chemo and suffer for a few extra months of life, or decide to hang up his uniform. He decided the latter, and fortunately he was of sound mind to do so. Many are not so lucky. For Sarah Palin to politicize (and blatantly lie about) such an important issue that will affect just about anybody with a parent or a loved-one at some point, is unforgivable. It's shameless and makes her a plenty bad person, in my book.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox From the article: <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703766704576009322838245628.html" target="_blank">http://online.wsj.com/article/...628.html</a> "Worst of all, the commission's proposals institutionalize the current administration's new big spending commitments, including ObamaCare. Not only does it leave ObamaCare intact, but its proposals would lead to a public option being introduced by the backdoor, with the chairmen's report suggesting a second look at a government-run health-care program if costs continue to soar. It also implicitly endorses the use of "death panel"-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare." So... Sarah Palin doesn't want an advisory board set up to manage Medicare reimbursements, which are established through the Federal government. But what about managing medical reimbursements through state-controlled Medicaid programs? She obviously has no problems with what individual states are currently doing, like Arizona. Palin has made no arguments against the Arizona "death panels" of Gov. Jan Brewer. None. Nada. Zip. She's been completely silent on the matter, while transplant patients are currently being given what amounts to as death sentences by being denied medical procedures that would save their lives. These Medicaid recipients are being subjected to state-controlled "death panels" right now. Without the transplants -- which have a greater than 90% success rate for long-term survival -- these patients will die in the near future. Guaranteed. So why isn't Sarah Palin complaining about the Arizona "death panels"? If she's a good person, Donny, why isn't she speaking up about these Medicaid recipients being denied life-saving treatments? Since you're an Arizona resident, how do you feel about Gov. Brewer telling these young citizens that funding research for alternative fuels is more important than saving their lives and forcing their children into poverty after they're gone? Are you in favor of the Arizona "death panels" for Medicaid? And if you are, then how come ObamaCare is such a bad deal, if it's going to do the same kind of rationing for Medicare that Arizona is doing right now for Medicaid? If Sarah Palin is such a good person, why doesn't she scream out against the "death panels" in Arizona, Donny? Why does she only care about "death panels" at the Federal level and not at the state level?
