Posted on 06/20/2009 11:27:55 AM PDT by wagglebee
Given its source, a publication of Claremont McKenna College, not exactly a hotbed of radicalism, this article urging health care cost containment as a reason to legalize euthanasia captures a justification for assisted suicide that is ever lurking in the background of the debate. From “The Economic Argument for Euthanasia,” by Charlie Sprague:
America has serious health care problems, and as Paul Krugman makes clear in a recent column, serious cost control in the health care industry needs to be a top priority in reform. President Obama and Congressional Democrats seem poised to push for major health care reform in the upcoming months. One idea that politicians on neither the left nor the right will touch due to political sensibilities, however, could be the easiest way to save billions of dollars without affecting health care quality at all: legalizing euthanasia.
As every good CMCer with an understanding of economics should know, those with terminal illnesses are resource sinks for society. End of life care is incredibly expensive due to the frequency of hospitalizations, the increased need for specialists’ attention, etc. Those with terminal illnesses have even more expensive health care needs. Obviously, those in the final stages of a terminal illness are no longer in any position to contribute economically to society. Their continued existence may be personally meaningful to the those who love them, but from a economic perspective they are all cost and no benefit.
If this is a parody, it just proves the Smith Maxim on Satire and the Culture of Death: They always catch up to you. Look how Oregon Medicaid has already denied chemotherapy to cancer patients but offered to pay for their assisted suicides. Moreover, some real euthanasia supporters have already made the argument. Thus, Derek Humphry and Mary Clement adopted the save-money-by-killing-the-sick argument, on page 333 of their book, Freedom to Die:
A rational argument can be made for allowing PAS [physician-assisted suicide] in order to offset the amount society and family spend on the ill, as long as it is the voluntary wish of the mentally competent terminally and incurably [note: not the same thing as terminal] ill adult. There will likely come a time when PAS becomes a commonplace occurrence for individuals who want to die and feel it is the right thing to do by their loved ones. There is no contradicting the fact that since the largest medical expenses are incurred in the final days and weeks of life, the hastened demise of people with only a short time left would free resources for others. Hundreds of billions of dollars could benefit those patients who not only can be cured but also want to live.
And don’t forget the radical environmentalists are looking toward instituting increased abortion and euthanasia as a way of reducing human population and “saving the planet.” Alas: This article may be a parody, but it is already behind the times.
Gee, and I thought it was just Republicans who wanted old and sick people to die by taking away their food stamps,medical assistance, etc., etc..../sarc
The future of American Health care, “You’re sick, huh? Over 40? Well, then just step this way into the disintegrator, don’t dispair you have a 75 percent chance of renewal!(anyone remember Logan’s Run?”.
Thats where these nutcases got their ideas.
I think we need to take this one step further. Think of how much money we would save on health care if we killed people before they get sick with a terminal illness or hey life long condition such as diabetes. Perfect genetic testing for inherited illness, fine tune risk factors for acquiring diabetes, heart disease, cancer and the like, carefully screen for early symptoms of disabling diseases such as MS, ALS, Cystic Fibrosis. Categorize them as drains on the economy and useless eaters.
Now the temptation is to euthanize them outright. But why not get some use out of them? Take those greedy, selfish, blights on the nation’s economy put them to work on needed public projects and work them till they drop. Then dispose of them in an ecologically friendly manner.
Mother Gaia thanks you for your kindness.
SARCASM ALERT should be applied to the above.
Nearly three hundred years ago, Jonathan Swift wrote his satirical masterpiece, "A Modest Proposal", today the culture of death uses it and movies like "Soylent Green" and "Logan's Run" as "how to" guides.
Excellent point!
Excellent point!
Yep, I wouldn’t be surprised if these movies came true.
Stranger things have happened.
I’ve often thought those movies were the result of the ideas being discussed.
For example in the book Forever War they encouraged Homosexuality in order to control the population. Being Hetro was socially engineered to be considered abnormal and dangerous.
Sounds like a plan to me.
A plan any Marxist would love.
The UN has rated overpopulation as THE biggest threat to the planet.
Most UN policies encourage death. We have more wars now with the UN than before. And they are pushing Homosexuality.
It’s an unethical reason this guy asserts, but on the other hand, why shouldn’t someone be permitted the assistance of a physician if he wants to commit suicide? Where does the constitution prohibit it? Why can’t states pass laws allowing it?
There’s no need for PAS. The initial die off when the electric grid and transport infrastructure go down, even temporarily, will definitely fix Medicare *AND* Social Security. I sometimes wonder if we are being deliberately guided into a SHTF scenario in order to achieve that very outcome.
If the right to life is an inalienable right that comes from God, we DO NOT have the right to surrender it.
And, where does it stop? Why just the terminally ill? Why not the depressed?
This was popular barroom talk for the Marxists in the 1960's as I recall. They were so very outraged that the elderly produced nothing for the collective but lived alone in big houses that could take several families and tied up wealth and other resources the elderly had illegitimately earned under a capitalist system.
They forget THEY TOO will grow old someday. Karma is a bitch.
Actually I kinda agree with this. If I was terminal, only had a few weeks to live, I would not want my family to lose all trying to delay the inevitable. Same if I was mentally out of it (no smart remarks here!) and no hope for reversal.
The problem is the slippery slope. Hospices already do their best IMHO to morphine out the dying, even when they still have some quality of life left.
But, it’ll come to this.
parsy, who is floating out to sea on his ice floe. Hey, I can see Russia from here!
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