(Don't) BE SCARED!!!
I received the following email recently. It exemplifies, to me, why people don't deserve to self-govern, why we as a species can't be trusted to make reasonable informed decisions, why we keep getting ourselves into the same messes over and over.
While I am certainly no fan of the government "compelling" anything on anyone, why is this scary? My point (as always) is to attack the things worth attacking and not to get sidetracked by panic and misunderstanding. To wit:
I read the paragraph above and got these main points. The bill would force health care providers to give seniors a run down of healthcare alternatives specifically for elderly, and that these talks would include such things as antibiotics and artificially administered nutrition.
To expand on it a bit, while being "compelled to submit" is certainly nothing I'd want, it's nothing new. We are "compelled to submit" to all manner of far more egregious breaches of privacy and liberty on a daily basis. Moreover, the actual effect of the bill would be to "compel" healthcare providers to document counseling elderly patients on some things they should be doing anyway.
"End-of-life care" is NOT a euphemism for assisted or prescribed suicide. It refers to supportive/palliative care for terminally ill or elderly patients. There are hard choices to be made there, but it isn't at all the same as "the government is trying to kill off the elderly".
Antibiotics are marvelous chemicals and we would live in a far different world without them. However, because of the often near-miraculous effects they have had, antibiotics have been over-prescribed and used as a prophylaxis rather than a treatment. As a result we now have strains of S. aureus that are almost entirely immune from every antibiotic we have. THAT's scary. The elderly are often prescribed antibiotics as a preventative measure. This is dangerous for everyone, including the person taking the antibiotics. Never mind that there is no proof that a maintenance regime of antibiotics helps at all, and in some cases definitely does damage quite aside from the production of resistant strains.
"Artificially administered nutrition and hydration" covers everything from vitamins and saline drips to specially prepared solutions via feeding tubes. Which isn't really all that scary.
Once again, my point is, attacking the government (and we haven't had anything approaching "good" government in decades) in a blind panic is a sure way to get results that you don't want.
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:21 AMSubject: BE SCARED!!!Dr. Betsy McCaughey's insight on the Healthcare Bill is worth reading. Website below. The scary part regarding seniors is quoted below.Harvard-trained M.D./Ph.D. named Ezekiel Emanuel (Rob Emanuel's brother) is the White House Health Care Policy Advisor.One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care (House bill, p. 425-430). The sessions cover highly sensitive matters such as whether to receive antibiotics and "the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration."We better wake up!! Tell your Senator and Congressman NO!
While I am certainly no fan of the government "compelling" anything on anyone, why is this scary? My point (as always) is to attack the things worth attacking and not to get sidetracked by panic and misunderstanding. To wit:
I read the paragraph above and got these main points. The bill would force health care providers to give seniors a run down of healthcare alternatives specifically for elderly, and that these talks would include such things as antibiotics and artificially administered nutrition.
To expand on it a bit, while being "compelled to submit" is certainly nothing I'd want, it's nothing new. We are "compelled to submit" to all manner of far more egregious breaches of privacy and liberty on a daily basis. Moreover, the actual effect of the bill would be to "compel" healthcare providers to document counseling elderly patients on some things they should be doing anyway.
"End-of-life care" is NOT a euphemism for assisted or prescribed suicide. It refers to supportive/palliative care for terminally ill or elderly patients. There are hard choices to be made there, but it isn't at all the same as "the government is trying to kill off the elderly".
Antibiotics are marvelous chemicals and we would live in a far different world without them. However, because of the often near-miraculous effects they have had, antibiotics have been over-prescribed and used as a prophylaxis rather than a treatment. As a result we now have strains of S. aureus that are almost entirely immune from every antibiotic we have. THAT's scary. The elderly are often prescribed antibiotics as a preventative measure. This is dangerous for everyone, including the person taking the antibiotics. Never mind that there is no proof that a maintenance regime of antibiotics helps at all, and in some cases definitely does damage quite aside from the production of resistant strains.
"Artificially administered nutrition and hydration" covers everything from vitamins and saline drips to specially prepared solutions via feeding tubes. Which isn't really all that scary.
Once again, my point is, attacking the government (and we haven't had anything approaching "good" government in decades) in a blind panic is a sure way to get results that you don't want.
posted by TheJonas at
10:31 AM
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