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Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Have A Dollop Of Horror
Consider the following snippet from Debra Saunders's column of today about the push for physician-assisted suicide in California:
And get this statement on Oregon's assisted suicide from Dr. Marcia Angell, former executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, to the New York Times: "I am concerned that too few people are requesting it. It seems to me that more would do it. The purpose of a law is to be used not to sit there on the books."Hmmmm. Not enough people in Oregon are killing themselves?
Something must be done. What are all those sick people doing clinging to life when they should be deleting themselves? What Oregon oncologist Stevens called vanity, Angell told the Times, "somebody else might call admirable independence."
The ugly thought that occurs to your Curmudgeon is that this is about money.
According to various sources, a typical American's medical expenditures, both from his own and others' pockets, are heavily back-loaded toward the end of his life, such that approximately half of his medical bills are accrued during his final week or two on Earth. Today, the bulk of those bills are paid by third parties: Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.
Neither Medicare nor Medicaid reimburses the typical hospital in full for its charges. Private insurers are understandably keen to reduce their payouts. And since third-party payment for health care has become the norm, those bills have exploded, such that even a prosperous family can be devastated by a dying relative's end-of-life expenses.
Now, just who is it that wants to legalize physician-assisted suicide again?
Comments
Keenly I note that you included the misanthropic sentence “I am concerned that too few people are requesting [assisted suicide].”
Attributing her motive to costs? For a curmudgeon, this seems far too obligingly charitable.
Evil hides behind costs so often, that I feel compelled to note that 1 Tim 6:10 makes room for this as well.
But for some, evil itself is at root; love of money provides merely another excuse.
Posted by Pascal Fervor on 01/05/2005 at 08:25 PMYou sure that quote wasn’t from Dr. Joseph Mengele?
Or maybe she’s just the Angell of Death?
That’s the most twisted thing I’ve seen in some time. I’m amazed this is the first I’ve read it.
Ed
Posted by Ed Mick on 01/06/2005 at 03:31 AM
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