Disco. DJ Bruce Chapman wonders Does Obamacare Provide for Euthanasia?
No.
This is the simple answer to that stupid, offensive, and intolerable question.
Here's Chapman's claim in all its glory:
Our Sr. Fellow Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute Center for Human Rights and Bioethics is asking the question that Bill Donahue of the Catholic League and others also are raising: Is there language under consideration that could lead to "end of life care" that includes intentional termination of life? Outrageous? Well, then, the Obamacare bill should be clarified to make sure the meaning is not obscure or doubtful.
It isn't obscure or doubtful. It's a piece of legislation, no more confusing than any other. What's interesting, though, is that Disco. is running not just with widely debunked nonsense and lies from the Catholic League, but from James Dobson's crew the evangelical right (the same group Disco. blogger Logan Gage recently promoted and which helped promote Disco.'s creationist bills in Louisiana and Florida).
Furthermore, this isn't Obama's bill, it's a bill drafted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Calling it Obamacare is not just inaccurate, it's stupid. The President's approval ratings remain higher than Congress's, so linking the bill to the President won't make it less popular, but more. It isn't like calling it "Hillarycare" in the '90s, when Mrs. Clinton was fairly unpopular.
And if you look at Smith's linked article, the stupid gets even more caustic:
Smith proceeds by taking a paragraph from the bill, omitting context, and saying "I rightly labeled this gobbedlygook [sic]." Nothing is rightly labeled "gobbedlygook." It isn't a word. The word is spelled "gobbledygook." And the bill itself is no more complex than any other piece of legislation. It refers to existing provisions, and adds a new section to existing law to allow Medicare to cover consultation with a doctor about legal and medical planning such as a living will or an advanced directive for medical care in case the patient can't make his or her own decisions. These are the sort of documents which would have saved Terry Schiavo's family a lot of trouble.
Smith is only confused about the bill's meaning because he didn't do one simple thing; knowing the truth of the matter "would require exploring the referenced statues I quoted above," he writes, without doing it.
A bill on the books since 1990 requires hospitals and long-term care facilities to make this information available to patients. A report issued by the Bush administration in 2003 describes how doctors should discuss this with patients. The language under discussion now was introduced as an uncontroversial stand-alone bill earlier this year, sponsored in the House by a Democrat and a Louisiana Republican, and in different form in the Senate by Senators Rockefeller (D-WV) and Collins (R-ME).
Wesley Smith may not care for living wills, but that's hardly a reason to call them euthanasia. Health insurance reform is to important for bullshit like this.
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Er, that link for "James Dobson's crew" connects to the American Family Association (aka the Always Fearful Americans), who are better described as Donald Wildmon's crew.
Their agendas are much the same, but they are distinct outfits, run by different ditzy old men.
Oh, and Maine's Senator Collins should, to her everlasting shame, be tagged as (R-ME)...
ou Might Be A Left-Wing Extremist Brainwashing Victim Ifâ¦
By Edward Daley (09/06/05)
You believe that the U. S. Constitution prohibits the open recognition of God by our federal (or any state) government, and the exhibition of religious symbols on public grounds.
Or you believe that Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election.
Or you believe that most television and print news outlets in this country are politically neutral.
Or you believe that outlawing private gun ownership will reduce crime.
Or you believe that the U. S. Constitution is a âliving, breathingâ document, and that Supreme Court Justices have the right to redefine its text in order to make it compatible with what they interpret to be the current moral standards of society.
Or you believe that Charles Darwinâs macro-evolution theory is a proven fact.
Or you believe that the U. S. should be a signatory to the Kyoto Treaty.
Or you believe that Michael Moore is patriotic.
Or you believe that requiring children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school violates their âcivil rightsâ.
Or you believe that the United States of America is an imperialistic nation.
Or you believe that private clubs like the Boy Scouts of America should be forced to accept as members individuals whoâs lifestyles they disapprove of.
Or you believe that affirmative action programs are morally defensible.
Or you believe that illegal aliens have the same Constitutional rights as American citizens.
Or you believe that big oil companies make more money from the sale of gasoline than the federal and state governments do.
Or you believe that most American soldiers joined the military because they were either tricked into it, or they couldnât make a living in the civilian world.
Or you believe that taxpayer money should be used to fund âthe artsâ.
Or you believe that the guarantor of your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the federal government.
Or you believe that unborn human beings are not really human beings simply because they require the impermanent sanctuary of their mothersâ wombs, and therefore, abortion is not murder.
Or you believe that George W. Bush is more dangerous to the American way of life than Al-Qaeda.
Or you believe that Rush Limbaugh is an extremist, but that Al Franken isnât.
Or you believe that drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska will destroy the environment.
Or you believe that raising taxes on the ârichâ will lead to economic prosperity for everyone else.
Or you believe that the invasion of Iraq by U. S.-led coalition forces violated âinternational lawâ.
Or you believe that things like the education system, the healthcare system, and the social security system are best controlled by federal agencies, as opposed to private citizens.
Or you believe that spanking an unruly child equates to abuse.
Or you believe that Hillary Clinton was genuinely shocked when Bill finally admitted to the American people that heâd had an âinappropriateâ relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
And if, by chance, you believe all of the above propositions to be true, then you have DEFINITELY been brainwashed by leftists extremists, and my heart goes out to your family and friends as they mourn the loss of your sanity.
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For some more of the healthcare battle debate, some good article and infor can be found at http://robhood.us/weblog.php