Obama Administration: Depressed and Disabled Veterans Should Consider Foregoing Medical Care

IsraPundit ^ | 8/19/09 | Bill Levinson

[Winged Hussar]

Depression, disability, and "being a financial burden" could constitute "Lebensunwerte Leben" (Life Unworthy of Life) in U.S. Government end of life planning document

"The Death Book for Veterans: Ex-soldiers don't need to be told they're a burden to society" by Jim Towey in today's (August 18) Wall Street Journal says,

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

We downloaded this document directly from the Veterans Administration, and the content suggests that both family finances and depression--a non-terminal illness--could constitute Lebensunwerte Leben, or "life unworthy of life." Smoke is generally indicative of fire and, although HR 3200 says nothing about mandatory end of life planning, euthanasia, or anything else similar to Germany's Aktion T4 program--the euthanasia program that served as a precedent for the Holocaust--we have shown (http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=16320) that there is indeed fire to go with the smoke. "Your Life, Your Choices" is simply more evidence, and it even suggests that war veterans with depression consider themselves a burden on the society that sent them to war.

[JerseyDvl]

I honestly did not see your post and had the same wtf reaction. That this ever existed is wrong but the fact it was re-implemented is indeed evil.

[zot]

This isn’t a “Living Will” it’s a “Dying Will” — and soldiers are expected to die for their country even if they are veterans.

[MarMema]

Disabled vets were among the first to be eliminated under Hitler,
as I recall.

[MarMema]

Well, in truth the long march is correct in that it is commonplace procedure to ask family about how long/much someone wants to be kept alive. But these questions go far beyond what I have ever seen done in the healthcare field.

[Yosemitest]

There is a "Right to Life",

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."

and they're attacking that, saying "We can't afford it!"

HOW DARE THEY!!!!

[Brad’s Gramma]

BTTT!!!!!!!!

[mojitojoe]

and he they wonder why people compare him to Hitler.

[greeneyes]

I helped both my mom and dad with their advanced directives. The local hospital had an exceptionally good template.

Some of these questions are in my opinion not appropriate. My Dad was a veteran of world war II. The financial questions are especially inappropriate particularly for veterans. The veteran is entitled to medical care from the government system.

[greeneyes]

You are right. I helped my mom and dad with their advanced directive, and my lawyer drew up a durable power of attorney for general and health care.

I never showed them to the doctors though. We just told them each time they were hospitalized who had the authority and what “code” status they were.

That way they couldn’t read the thing and misinterpret it. They had to inform us of options. The code status determined what they had to do in an emergency.

[Winged Hussar]

The Obamvis and Bidenhead Show; the problem is, it’s for real.

[ponygirl]

Thank you. You are so spot on.

Many of the symptoms of depression are also the same symptoms as adrenal fatigue. But not too many MDs even know what adrenal fatigue is, much less how to treat it. Soldiers coming home after multiple stresses to their adrenal system need to be given more than just anti-depressants and a few therapy sessions.

There is an excellent book called "Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome," by James L. Wilson, a naturopathic doctor. You can find it on Amazon. It covers what the syndrome is, how its caused, how you can be tested to find out for certain if you have it, and how to recover from it. I highly recommend it. There are no easy fixes though - it requires changing dietary habits, taking supplements, changing your sleep cycles, among other things.

One interesting point he makes in the book is how certain forms of alcoholism are brought on by adrenal fatigue - the hypoglycemia caused by run-down adrenals predisposes a person to a compulsive desire for alcohol in order to "jump start" an exhausted system. Seeing as how alcoholism tends to become a problem among returning veterans, it makes sense.

[MestaMachine]

Yes

[Waco]

RATS are always all about killing us, after all we can still vote for them from the grave.

[TheThinker]

I Guess being diagnosed with PTSD is a death sentence for me if Obama gets his way...

What's sick is that this is this is when you are most vulnerable and this document is used to sign your life away. Whatever happened to "I, of sound body and mind" make this decision or that?

[Mr. Silverback]

If you do not have one in place the doctors will do what they want.

if you do not have one you better be lucid when you hit the hospital else wise they will do what they want

You are completely full of crap. They do what the family wants, even (sadly) bowing to their wishes in clear violation of advance directives. So, unless the patient is completely without relatives of any kind, your scenario is 100% BS.

[Mr. Silverback]

Those questions are cold and suggestive. I used legalzoom.com to do a family member's will and living will, and the questions were nothing like that.

That's because at least one of the following is true about legalzoom:

1. They fear being seen as ghouls because it might damage their place in a free market and lose them business to competitors.

2. They actually have some decency and compassion.

Either or both could be true. Neither would apply to government bureaucrats.

[MestaMachine]

The fact of the matter is that the survival instinct is the most powerful force in man’s arsenal. Psychiatrists and psychologists spend way too much time making up reasons why we CAN’T survive without them, (because THEY cannot survive without us.)
The fight or flight mechanism is on such a hair trigger for these guys and gals, that a period of readjustment is absolutely necessary. Treating them with psychotropes and other will suppressing drugs is dangerous to the nth degree.

[A Navy Vet]

"Government-run health care is NOT constitutional. Period!"

Of course not! The "General Welfare" clause has been abused to the point of obscenity, not to mention the "Interstate Commerce" clause. The 9th and 10th Amendments (and others to a lessor degree) say it all. Read them; understand them; support them; fight for them!

If those Amendments are not clear enough, then read the various debates prior to and during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. The Federalist Papers, Founding Father publications, correspondence between them, personal letters, diaries, etc. will make it VERY clear what their INTENT was about.

There is NO doubt the Founding Fathers strongly believed in limited federal government. The best minds of the time proclaimed it time and again for years! Some continued to warn about fedgov largess even after the Constitution was ratified.