Is There a Duty for the Elderly to Die?

Is There a Duty for the Elderly to Die?
Apparently the Democrat Congress and Obama seems to think so.

________________________________________
In 2004 former Governor of Colorado Richard Lamm lit a firestorm of controversy when he suggested that old people have a duty to die. This concept has been elaborated by others. The reasoning is that our society, at least in the Western world, have no good financial plans for long-term care for the aged when they become incapacitated because of illness or mental debility. Often these persons become a financial and emotional burden for family members and may require family members to alter their own lives and goals simply to care for their aged relatives. It has been suggested that these burdens are not acceptable and that the aged should find a duty to terminate their lives before they have reached such a dependent state. This means that an elderly person while mentally competent and not terminally ill should arrange to die. The argument is that their life is almost over naturally and they should not interfere with the lives and careers of others who have yet many years of life ahead. Also implied is that society's monetary costs for caring for the elderly infirm could better be spent on children and younger people.
=========================================================================
I received this email today and posting it exactly as it was received:

"I heard this on the news today, Now the provision is being circulated for all to understand. This is no joke, unfortunately. When I heard this on CNN & Fox this morning, I thought they were kidding, but they quoted the provision that is proposed.

Paul

"Page 425 of Obama's Health Bill

"You’re not going to believe this because it’s so absurd, but here is what it says.

“The Federal Government will require everyone who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every 5 years with the objective being that they will explain to them how to end their own life earlier.”

"THEY ARE GOING TO PUSH SUICIDE to cut medicare spending!

Click here: Obamacare for old folks: Just 'cut your life short'"
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104719

So, I checked it out and This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=104719

Friday, July 24, 2009
________________________________________
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Obamacare for old folks: Just 'cut your life short'
Health plan provision demands 'end-of-life' counseling
________________________________________
Posted: July 22, 2009
8:21 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
________________________________________
WorldNetDaily
The version of President Obama's universal health care plan pending in the U.S. House would require "end-of-life" counseling for senior citizens, and the former lieutenant governor for the state of New York is warning people to "protect their parents" from the measure.
At issue is section 1233 of the legislative proposal that deals with a government requirement for an "Advance Care Planning Consultation."
Betsy McCaughey, the former New York state officer, told former president candidate Fred Thompson during an interview on his radio program the "consultation" is no more or less than an attempt to convince seniors to die.
One of the most shocking things is page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory absolutely that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session," she said. "They will tell [them] how to end their life sooner."
The proposal specifically calls for the consultation to recommend "palliative care and hospice" for seniors in their mandatory counseling sessions. Palliative care and hospice generally focus only on pain relief until death.
The measure requires "an explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Excerpt from health care plan:
(B) An explanation by the practitioner of advance directive, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses.
(C) An explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.
(D) The provision by the practitioner of a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning, including the national toll-free hotline, the advance care planning clearing houses, and State legal service organizations (including those funded through the Older Americans Act of 1965).
(E) An explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, INCLUDING PALLIATIVE CARE and hospice and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title.

Excerpt from health care plan
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
It also recommends a method for death: "the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration."
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Another excerpt from the Obamacare plan
(l) the individual's desire regarding transfer to a hospital of remaining at the current care setting.
(m) the use of antibiotics, and
(n) the use OF ARTIFICIALLY ADMINISTERED NUTRITION AND HYDRATION
(2) PAYMENT- Section 1848(J)(3) of such Act (42 U.S.C.) 1395w-4(j)(3)is amended by inserting(2) (FF), after (2)(EE).

Another excerpt from the Obamacare plan
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Then there's a third reference that sets out reporting requirements for doctors to monitor how such end-of-life orders are followed.
Under "QUALITY REPORTING INITIATIVE," the bill says, "For purposes of reporting data on quality measures for covered professional services furnished during 2011 and any subsequent year, to the extent that measures are available, the Secretary shall include quality measures on end of life care and advanced care planning that have been adopted or endorsed by a consensus-based organization, if appropriate. Such measures shall measure both the creation of and adherence to orders for life-sustaining treatment."
________________________________________________________________________________________________
A third excerpt from Obamacare

(3) Physician's Quality Reporting Initiative:
(A) IN GENERAL – For purposes of reporting data on quality measures for covered professional services furnished during 2011 and any subsequent year, to the extent that measures are available, the Secretary shall include quality measures on end of life care and advance care planning that have been adopted or endorsed by a consensus-based organization, if appropriate. Such measures shall measure both THE CREATION OF AND THE ADHERENCE TO orders for life sustaining treatment.
(B)PROPOSED SET OF MEASURES – The Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register proposed quality measures on end of life care and…

A third excerpt from Obamacare
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

McCaughey said she was stunned.
"As a patient advocate I am so shocked at the vicious assault on elderly people and the boomer generation," she told Thompson. "I hope people listening will protect their parents from what is intended under this bill."
She cited the federal provision that such counseling sessions must be administered every five years. If there's a significant change in the person's health or status during that time, such as an ordinary move to a nursing home because of declining physical abilities, the counseling must be administered again.
The message, she said, is "to do what's in society's best interests, and cut your life short."
"Can you imagine the response of the American people (when they find out)?" Thompson asked..
McCaughey is a health policy expert who founded HospitalInfection.org to stop hospital-acquired infections as well as DefendYourHealthCare.us concerning the proposed nationalization of health care.
The law also allows preferences that treatment levels set up by patients "may range from an indication for full treatment to an indication to limit some or all … interventions."
McCaughey also said the Obama administration is suggesting that medical care be withheld from seniors based on the expected years they have left to live. Such a program already is in effect in the United Kingdom, where patients losing their eyesight to age-related macular degeneration cannot be given an eyesight-saving medication until they lose sight in one eye.