Free Republic

The God's Partner Zero dollar is out and available for download, printing and passing out. take them to DC with you for the rally! For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Zero Bill Archive"

One of the key ideas under consideration—which can be read as expressing sympathy for limitations on end-of-life care—is morally revolting. And it’s helping to kill the plan itself. Make no mistake about it. Determining which treatments are “cost effective” at the end of a person’s life and which are not is one of Obama’s priorities. It’s one of the principal ways he counts on saving money and making universal healthcare affordable.

41 Catholic priests have been issued a formal warning by the Vatican for signing an open letter approving the removal of food and hydration of helpless patients like Eluana Englaro. Five months ago, in a letter composed by Fr. Paolo Farinella of Genoa, the group complained that a living wills law being prepared by Prime Minister Berlusconi's government excluded the possibility that food and hydration could be withdrawn from patients by doctors to bring about their deaths. Farinella, the author of the article "The right to live a duty to die," is a well-known supporter of euthanasia. Published by Micromega,...

“Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out.” So goes the old Green Beret war cry. It’s the kind of gallows humor that soldiers (and cops) are known for. In this case, it’s especially ironic, since few warrior units in history have as good a track record of sparing innocent lives as the men who imbed with indigenous populations and help them take out the bad guys. For Jack Kevorkian, the motto is apparently just “Kill ‘em all.” He firmly declares there is no God to do the sorting. In a recent interview on Your World with Neil Cavuto,...

New information has surfaced regarding euthanization of elderly patients at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina. A doctor has admitted administering a lethal dose of morphine to one patient knowing that it would kill her. "There's no question I hastened her demise," Dr. Ewing Cook told an independent investigation organization. "I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the [hospital] floor." The patient, Jannie Burgess, 79, was suffering from uterine cancer and kidney failure. "To me, it was a no-brainer -- and to this day I don't feel bad about...

In recent weeks one of the many problems Americans have had with plans for the federal government to take over the health care industry has had to do with life and death issues such as rationing, euthanasia and “death panels.”The socialists pushing government health care have tried very hard to whitewash these concerns, but to little avail.  Even the elderly (who are often solid Democrat supporters because of their addiction to the government largess they already enjoy in programs like Social Security and Medicare) are deserting the Temple of Government in droves; apparently the thought of euthanasia and rationing...

Bioethicist Jacob Appel can be relied on to promote the most radical bioethics agendas, assisted suicide for the mentally ill, fetal farming, you name it.  And now he has argued that if Montana affirms a constitutional right to assisted suicide in Montana, the state has a duty to make sure that doctors are willing to do the deed.  Why?  Doctors have a monopoly on a limited commodity–the practice of medicine–and hence they should be able to be forced to participate in the taking of patients’ lives in assisted suicide. From his column: However, it [medical license and professional autonomy]...

[This week] the pro-life movement mourns the loss of Mr. Robert Schindler, Sr., the father of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, whose fight for life captured the heart of the pro-life community in 2005. Mr. Schindler [was buried] in Philadelphia [yesterday] without the fanfare or accolades that are due a real champion who fought one of the most insidious evils of modern society — the legalized murder of the innocent. His funeral [was] not be televised on all the cable news networks, no cardinals [attended] it, and the President of the United States [[did] not deliver the eulogy — thank God. Mr. Schindler,...

The Deathcare Zero dollar is out - it isn't money, it's political artwork that fits in your wallet. Please use it in your fight against Obamacare, please use the front AND back. Front of the 'bill' comes first, then the back. For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Zero Bill Archive"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP)--I envied Terri Schiavo for her father, Bob. There were times I thought: What a waste, she doesn't know how good she has it. Not like it was her fault, but if only she knew. But of course she knew. From all the firsthand accounts and the vivid description of my friend David Gibbs, the attorney who fought for the right of Bob Schindler's daughter to live, Terri herself knew what it was like to feel the whiskered face of her father rough up against her cheek and tickle her until she smiled. She knew when he...

Contact: Margaret, Priests for Life, 888-735-3448 ext. 251 STATEN ISLAND, NY, Sept. 2 /Christian Newswire/ -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, commented today on the pending Montana Supreme Court case that could establish a so called state constitutional right to assisted suicide."Assisted suicide is an act that violates the victim's dignity," said Fr. Pavone.  "It is a declaration that a person's life is worthless and devoid of respect.  If the Montana constitution states that the dignity of every human is inviolable, then there can be no room in that constitution for the protection of a fabricated 'right' that threatens...

Detroit, MI (LifeNews.com) -- In one of his first lengthy interviews following eight years in prison for murdering a disabled patient on national television, Jack Kevorkian is at it again promoting euthanasia. Meanwhile, the movie that will glorify his life and his killing of dozens and dozens of people will debut next year. The retired pathologist became the scourge of the nation when he embarked on a campaign claiming to kill more than 125 people in assisted suicides. Kevorkian took advantage of the state of Michigan not having a direct assisted suicide ban and never served a day in jail...

First there were angry senior citizens at town hall meetings, literally fearing for their lives. They're worried that under the President's proposed health care plan they'll be denied critical life-saving services because of their age. There's good reason for their concern. And what's come to light since then won't make them sleep any easier. The Obama administration now seems to have our nation's veterans in the crosshairs. Perhaps you've heard about the booklet Your Life Your Choices-also known as the Death Book for Veterans. This book is particularly alarming, so I want to share some detail you may not have...

See the previous parts in this series:Beck to the Future: Glen Beck Exposes Dangerous Link Between Nazi Eugenics and ObamaCare Reform Experts  Beck to the Future II: Three Scary ObamaCare "Czars"WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Glen Beck says that Germany went terribly wrong from two things: the nation "ran out of money" and it had "crazy people" - the National Socialists - running a centralized bureaucracy that extended its reach into all corners of German society, and particularly in the nation's universal health-care system.For Beck, the list of Obama advisors behind health-care reform certainly seems to fit the...

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A doctor has admitted that he gave orders for a lethal dose of medication to be administered to a patient under his care during the hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005 - a decision that he says he does not regret having made.Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans were struggling to evacuate patients from the flooded building, he gave the order to give Jannie Burgess, 79, who was dying of uterine cancer and kidney failure, a dose of morphine that he knew would kill her."Do you...

Examiner: How are you feeling today, Kelly? Kelly: Fine. Great! Examiner: Your cholesterol levels are elevated again. Kelly: Yeah. Examiner: And your blood pressure's still high. Kelly: Probably because I rushed. Didn't want to have to pay the 50 bucks. I used to get 50 bucks for signing up. Now I have to pay if I don't sign up. Examiner: But it's all voluntary. Remember that. OK. Your blood glucose levels are fine, but your waist measurement is borderline. Kelly: I started walking more. Examiner: Your risk for stroke and heart disease is high. I see, though, that you've agreed...

See Part I Beck to the Future: Glen Beck Exposes Dangerous Link Between Nazi Eugenics and ObamaCare Reform Experts By Peter J. SmithWASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Germany's experience with National Socialism is one of the darker moments of human history. FOX News host Glenn Beck has taken on the challenge of applying the lessons of Nazi Germany (government-controlled health care, combined with the principle of valuing human beings based on "quality of life" and a severe economic crisis) to "question with boldness" the direction American health-care is heading under President Barack Obama and his policy advisors.Beck hosts...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "Question with boldness." That is the motto of radio host and FOX News television host Glenn Beck, who says he asks questions no different than ordinary Americans - he just has an army of researchers to help him explore these questions. But what the question explores is the disturbing relationship between eugenics, Nazism, and the imposition of Obama's health care plan upon the United States.Like the old adage "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it," Beck has looked back to the past to get a glimpse of the future....

LifeNews.com Note: Bradley Mattes is the executive director of Life Issues Institute, a national pro-life educational group. Mattes is a veteran of the pro-life cause, with over 33 years of educational, political and humanitarian experience. First there were angry senior citizens at town hall meetings, literally fearing for their lives. They're worried that under the President’s proposed health care plan they'll be denied critical life-saving services because of their age. There’s good reason for their concern. And what’s come to light since then won't make them sleep any easier. The Obama administration now seems to have our nation’s veterans in...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana's top prosecutor said Friday he will not reopen a probe into allegations of euthanasia at a hospital crippled by Hurricane Katrina, despite new statements from a doctor that he drugged a terminal patient to "get rid of her faster." Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center desperately tried to care for and evacuate patients, making spot assessments of which ones might survive, he scribbled "pronounced dead at" on the patient's chart, intending to fill in time and other details later. "I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her...

Poor misunderstood Ezekiel J. Emanuel. Ezekiel, if you don’t know, is the older brother of the statist Rahm Emanuel, and recently Ezekiel got his feeling hurt. In an interview he just gave the Associated Press, Monday (August 24th), Ezekiel said this: "I’m completely dumbfounded. I’ve been in academic disputes before, but I never thought I’d be disparaged on Sunday morning talk shows and in the papers, being distorted in ways that can only be described as willful and intentional." More details and a video here: Fact of the Day: Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Obamacare, and Death Panels

Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- The government-run health care bills in Congress have come under criticism from those who say they would establish "death panels" or give doctors financial incentives to promote rationed health care or euthanasia. In Texas, where that is already happening, critics say the legislation would make it worse.Texas currently has a futile care law in place that allows medical facilities to give families just 10 days to find places to care for their loved ones when a medical center refuses treatment.The law only requires the hospital to provide the patient and family with 48 hours' notice before...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The brother of Terri Schiavo, the disabled woman whose former husband subjected her to a painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death, is speaking out against a guide the Obama administration is distributing to veterans that critics say promotes euthanasia and assisted suicide.The Department of Veterans Affairs is currently promoting a guide called "Your Life, Your Choices" that was first published in the Clinton administration.The VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care brought back a 52-page end-of-life planning document that was suspended during the Bush administration.A worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Senator Edward Kennedy's death marks the twilight of one of America's most fabled political families, with no heirs to the Kennedy name poised to emerge with the same mix of gravitas, ambition and celebrity. Kennedy, 77, one of the most effective lawmakers in U.S. history and the brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, died late on Tuesday after battling brain cancer.

Most measures taken when patients are terminally ill, including the use of feeding tubes, ventilators and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, do nothing to prolong meaningful life. Rather, as Dr. Jeff Gordon put it in the title of his new book, they represent “A Death Prolonged.”

The Wall Street Journal just published a shocking editorial written by a respected University President, confirming the Obama Administration is now using VA hospitals to order doctors to pressure all military veterans to sign "pull the plug" do-not-resuscitate orders, hastening their premature deaths through mandatory "end of life" counseling. President Jim Towey of Saint Vincent's College, founder of the non-profit "Aging With Dignity" and former White House Director of faith based initiatives, wrote a blistering expose entitled "The Death Book For Veterans," revealing President Obama's new Veterans Administration (VA) directive, presumably signed by VA Secretary, General (ret.) Eric Shinseki, which...

Two cases of “public option” administrators rejecting patient requests for lifesaving or life-extending drugs (and instead offering to fund those patients’ assisted suicides) reached the mainstream media in the last two weeks. This has caused critics of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul proposal to look to Oregon for clues about what a national health system would bring. The picture is not pretty. Oregon, the only state to allow assisted suicide (via the 1997 “Death With Dignity Law”), has used its public health care “option” as a pretext for enacting an official policy of trading lives that bureaucrats determine to...

Here is video of Sen. Charles Grassley on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, and pointing out that it was President Obama who first used the phrase "pull the plug on Grandma." Grassley has been criticized by Democrats for using that type of phrase, but he did so only to make it clear that Government and politicians have no business meddling in the decision-making process as people face end-of-life decisions. . . . (Watch Video)

Sarah Palin has been criticized for suggesting that the President's healthcare proposals may result in "death panels" affecting chronically sick people, the elderly, or the disabled. However, Palin's remarks accurately show how some federal healthcare provisions may work if passed into law, because if the government controls healthcare, faceless government officials far from your doctor's office will make your treatment decisions. A government "panel?" Probably. A government "death panel?" Yes, if that panel decides that your doctor should withhold a treatment that could improve your health, save your life, or keep you comfortable. I'm sorry to tell you that in...

Hoping to find saving grace with the religious left, President Barack Obama began a public relations blitz Thursday in which he hope to wrap universal health care in the shroud of morality. “We are God's partners in matters of life and death,” Mr. Obama reportedly said in a conference call with Rabbi Jack Moline and other clerics. The conference was part of an effort to enlist left leaning clergy in the failing battle for Obamacare. While many aspects of Obamacare have unnerved an anxious public, recently conservatives have criticized the health care plan for permitting tax-payer funded abortions. It is...

Popular support for Obamacare is collapsing, due in part to fears that the House Bill’s end-of-life counseling provision for Medicare patients could become a means of pushing seniors into voluntary rationing, that is, into refusing life-sustaining treatment toward the end of saving costs.  Despite the president’s early statements that would seem to support that very fear, the administration’s defenders have branded such criticisms “lying about the bill,” or alarmism.But now, a column in the Wall Street Journal charges that the Obama Administration has ordered veterans to be given counseling about end of life care that pushes the “refuse treatment” option....

Although President Obama and liberal Congressional Democrats have denounced claims that the health care reform establishes "death panels," it does not help reassure the American public that the nation's foremost pro-euthanasia group is actively pushing "end-of-life counseling" as a centerpiece of health-care reforms. Compassion & Choices, a rebranding of the former Hemlock Society, aggressively lobbies to legalize euthanasia as a "human right" by means of legislation and the judicial system. But the group has revealed that it is a major player behind incorporating a measure (sec. 1233) of the "American Affordable Choices Act of 2009" (HR 3200) that would pay...

The other day, President Obama referenced the Netherlands as a splendid example of how the “public option,” that is a government plan, worked well with a private system. To The Source contacted me and asked me to reflect on the president’s use of that particular example.First, the president drastically understated the matter when he stated that the Dutch government was merely “involved” in the country’s health care system.  Yes, there is a dual government/private system, but the private sector is regulated to the point of being handcuffed.  From the piece: Everyone must purchase insurance from heavy regulated private insurance companies...

Smoke is generally indicative of fire, and there is plenty of fire behind the smoke about government "death panels" that will decide when it is too expensive to keep senior citizens alive. Barack Obama's health care advisor Ezekiel Emanuel is on record as recommending denial of health care to senior citizens (in favor of younger people) and denial of extensive care to people with dementia. Moderator-approved postings at Barackobama.com, Barack Obama's official Web site, openly favor denial of medical care to seriously ill senior citizens for the explicit purpose of saving money. Barack Obama cannot argue that he has no...

Sermon Delivered by Bishop Clemens August Count of GalenAugust 3, 1941[The following is from the book, Cardinal von Galen, by Rev. Heinrich Portmann, translated by R.L. Sedgwick, 1957, pp. 239-246.] The Third Sermon, preached in the Church of St. Lambert's on August 3rd, 1941, in which the Bishop attacks the Nazi practice of euthanasia and condemns the ‘mercy killings’ taking place in his own diocese.My Beloved Brethren,In today's Gospel we read of an unusual event: Our Saviour weeps. Yes, the Son of God sheds tears. Whoever weeps must be either in physical or mental anguish. At that time Jesus...

LifeNews.com Note: Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and author of many books, including "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance" (Seven Stories Press, 2003). I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover's FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him. I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration. President Obama's desired health care reform intends that a federal board (similar to the British model) — as in the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although President Obama and liberal Congressional Democrats have denounced claims that the health care reform establishes "death panels," it does not help reassure the American public that the nation's foremost pro-euthanasia group is actively pushing "end-of-life counseling" as a centerpiece of health-care reforms.Compassion & Choices, a rebranding of the former Hemlock Society, aggressively lobbies to legalize euthanasia as a "human right" by means of legislation and the judicial system. But the group has revealed that it is a major player behind incorporating a measure (sec. 1233) of the "American Affordable Choices Act...

TALLAHASSEE -- Floridians like the town-hall protests over President Barack Obama's healthcare plan and disapprove more of the plan and the president himself, according to a new poll. By big margins, Floridians say the protests are not ``un-American'' and they're far more worried about rising taxes and deficits than with the need for a healthcare plan, the new Quinnipiac University poll of 1,136 registered voters shows. Since he began pushing the health plan, Obama's job-approval ratings have flatlined. For the first time in Florida, slightly more people disapprove of Obama's job performance than support it. The split: 48 to 47...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa, August 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his latest column, Bishop R. Walter Nickless of the Diocese of Sioux City joined a growing number of Catholic leaders in stated opposition to the Obama health care legislation, which is poised to expand abortion by mandating abortion coverage and providing taxpayer subsidies to abortion providers. Niclkess also noted that the Catholic Church has no position for or against any kind of health care distribution, and argued that the structure proposed by the legislation would ultimately be detrimental to distributing health care according to need. "No health care reform is better...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- During a weekend interview, a top Obama official said she wants the controversial end-of-life counseling proposal to remain in the final version of the health care bill Obama may receive. The counseling, which skeptics say amounts to "death panels" could promote assisted suicide and health are rationing.The sections are found in the House version of the health care bills and they call for giving doctors financial incentives to discuss end-of-life issues.Critics complain that doctors should not be paid to have the discussions and worry that they will promote assisted suicide in states where the practice is...

From Family Planning to Death Planning August 15th, 2009 by Fr. Thomas Euteneuer It’s time to kiss grandma goodbye. Do it while you can, especially if she is sick. I am not being facetious here. The healthcare debate is deadly serious for seniors and those who will need a greater amount of health care in the coming years. People approaching retirement age will be obliged to start planning for death soon, and the government is more than ready to help them. According to this wicked bill, HR 3200, there are generous provisions setting the stage to weed out the weak,...

I’m heartened by the recent public outcry at the town hall meetings across the country by people opposed to the government’s plan to take over the health-care industry. We currently have a $1.8 trillion budget deficit, yet our leaders in Washington wish us to accede to their desire to spend another $1.5 trillion and construct a socialized medicine plan. Our new president and his supporters have demonized doctors, the pharmaceutical industry, and insurance companies. It’s not surprising that now the White House has a Web site that encourages its followers to inform on opponents to the proposed Big Brother health-care...

Netherland’s Groningen Protocol Gains Acceptance In America By Linda Prussen-Razzano Former Governor Sarah Palin set off a firestorm when she expressed concern over how her son, Trig (born with Down Syndrome) would be treated in a universal-healthcare system. Posting on Facebook, Palin fretted that children like Trig could potentially face a “death panel” of bureaucrats determining whether he was fit to live. While the Administration and the majority of the media dismissed her remarks as “false,” closer examination reveals that Palin’s alarm was justified. Everyday, in hospitals across America, panels of doctors and bioethicists deal with the complicated issue of...

I have noticed in the last year that the assisted suicide ideologues at Compassion and Choices are trying to reposition the organization–formerly the Hemlock Society–as the go-to group on information and methods of dying. It began with California’s AB 2747, pushed by C and C, which would have permitted patients to demand terminal sedation if diagnosed with one year or less to live.  That part didn’t pass, but the part that did was for doctors to notify such patients of all their end of life options, e.g., hospice, self starvation, palliative sedation, etc, and/or refer to outside organizations–guess who–to provide...

It’s time to kiss grandma goodbye. Do it while you can, especially if she is sick. I am not being facetious here. The healthcare debate is deadly serious for seniors and those who will need a greater amount of health care in the coming years. People approaching retirement age will be obliged to start planning for death soon, and the government is more than ready to help them. According to this wicked bill, HR 3200, there are generous provisions setting the stage to weed out the weak, infirm and unfit and make room for the fit, all at the government’s...

President Barack Obama, in an interview with columnist David Leonhardt in the April 14 New York Times magazine: The President: Now, I actually think that the tougher issue around medical care—it's a related one—is what you do around things like end-of-life care. Mr. Leonhardt: Yes, where it's $20,000 for an extra week of life. The President: Exactly. And I just recently went through this. I mean, I've told this story, maybe not publicly, but when my grandmother got very ill during the campaign, she got cancer; it was determined to be terminal. And about two or three weeks after her...

Obama's Statements on Health Care for Senior Citizens Consistent with German Aktion T4Various commentators have stated mistakenly that HR 3200 contains provisions for "death panels" that will decide when it is time to "pull the plug on Grandma." We reviewed the portion of HR 3200 in question, and we found no such provisions whatsoever. There is a well-known adage, however, that the presence of smoke generally indicates a fire, and the New York Times has exposed the fire behind the smoke. Barack Obama's rhetoric on the cost of care for senior citizens and others toward the ends of their lives...

@ 8:23 am by Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) praised a Senate committee's decision to drop an end-of-life provision from its healthcare reform bill, but continued to pound away at the overall bill — especially a proposal by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. "It's gratifying that the voice of the people is getting through to Congress," Palin said in a new note on her Facebook page posted early Friday morning of the Senate Finance Committee's decision to drop end-of-life consultations from its health bill. (The Alaska politician had derided those consultations as "death panels" seeking to aid the euthanasia of...

The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama’s health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks. Advanced even this week by Republican stalwarts including the party’s last vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and Charles E. Grassley, the veteran Iowa senator, the nature of the assertion nonetheless seemed reminiscent of the modern-day viral Internet campaigns that dogged Mr. Obama last year, falsely calling him a Muslim and questioning his nationality. But the rumor — which has come up at Congressional town-hall-style meetings this week in spite...

Sarah Palin Defends Death Panels Statement on Health Care Washington, DC -- Former Alaska governor and possible 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin is not backing down from her charge that the House health care bill includes "death panels." Palin faced significant criticism after saying provisions in the measure could lead to euthanasia or rationing of medical care. http://www.LifeNews.com/bio2918.html