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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| The VA Wants Veterans Dead To Save Money? |
| 2009-08-19 |
| 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." Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing. "Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living." The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 "The Fixed. And they have about the same opinion of members of the military who aren't retired yet. >:-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-08-19 23:01 |
| #2 1. I cannot get my gov't health care takeover passed. 2. I'm reasonably certain my mother was a whore. 3. My wife's bum is now three feet wide. 4. Axelrod's media connections have now been revealed. 5. I am down to my last carton of Lucky Strikes. PULL MY PLUG! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-08-19 22:47 |
| #1 Don't you know there are 32 priests in the basement of the pentagon praying 24 hours a day for the retirees to die off??? |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2009-08-19 20:52 |