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The Spectacle Blog
A number of readers have objected to this section from my article today on the main site:
In 2005, the Terri Schiavo tragedy became a heated national political issue, because an accident left the Florida woman incapable of expressing whether she wanted to be kept alive with the aid of life-sustaining technology, and there wasn't any clear record of what her own wishes would have been.
The main complaint is my suggestion that that Schiavo was "kept alive with the aid of life-sustaining technology." As a number of readers pointed out, she was given food and water through feeding tubes. We can quibble about whether or not feeding tubes constitute technology, but I probably should have been more precise in my language so as to avoid a dispute over semantics. Either way, I don't think it changes my main point. If Schiavo had a living will or some form of advance directive about what her own wishes would have been regarding the level of medical intervention she would have wanted, then her tragedy wouldn't have become a heated national political issue involving courts, the Congress, and the White House.
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More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/08/14/remembering-schiavo
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Tim| 8.14.09 @ 11:21AM
Under Obamacare there won't be any controversey either. Some GS-8 will run the numbers and it's lights out.
Liberal Reader| 8.14.09 @ 11:29AM
Mr Klein,
It sounds to me like you are an advocate of Obama's death panels.
Welcome aboard! Us Nazis on the left are always looking for a new recruit. Just sign below so we can get you a citizen identification card and uniform.
WJ| 8.14.09 @ 1:58PM
The thing I remember about Ms. Schiavo as she was murdered by dehydration. Her "husband" and all those who wanted her killed, denied her WATER so she would die.
Just think how inhumane that is, to kill a person by making them die of thirst over several days. Talk about torture.
Tim| 8.14.09 @ 2:53PM
Liberal Feeder
You little mind tick! Once again we must apply the tweezers of reason and the hot flame of truth to dispose of you.
There's a VASt difference between making your own decisions and having them made for you by some faceless bureaucrat.
Liberal Reader| 8.14.09 @ 3:01PM
Tim --
Unfortunately, you are ill informed.
The provision in the House bill in question allows for people to CHOOSE to discuss end of life issues with their OWN doctor IF THEY WISH.
The point of the provision -- which, by the way, is already in effect for people first entering Medicare as the result of a 1991 law introduced by a Republican -- is simply to ensure that doctors are compensated (by the government) for the time they spend doing this counseling.
THERE IS NO DEATH PANEL. THERE IS NO "FACELESS BUREAUCRAT"!!!
Get it through your thick head. Or see a doctor. If you can afford it.
Angel| 8.14.09 @ 3:32PM
LibReader/Jeremiah, it's fine with me that you are an ObamaCare "death panel" fan; just so you promise us you'll be first up to receive their services.
Angel| 8.14.09 @ 3:36PM
DUH!! Of course there isn't a "death panel" in ObamaCare--Palin got rid of them. Thanks, Sarah.
Slowing down there, LR/J. Pity.
Angel| 8.14.09 @ 3:38PM
RIP Terry Schiavo
I still think her husband is a creepy sleazeball.
Liberal Reader| 8.14.09 @ 3:59PM
Angel --
No one considers Palin an adult participant in the national debate.
She disgraced herself with that face book page, and probably lost any chance of being president. While her fans loved her for it, the vast majority of people saw it for what it was: brute demagoguery. And good riddance to her.
JP| 8.14.09 @ 4:54PM
I would suggest people read the actual paragraphs of the bill. No, there is no mention of Death Panels. But the language is vague. And the real danger will come from a number of different directions -namely from actuarial specialists who will get thier marching orders from the bean counters. First it was Tom Daschle who suggested a National Health Board. More recently both House and Senate version mention health boards whose main job is the "bend the cost curve" - or more to the point "ration care".
This is Palin's point. Medicare already rations health services, and is due to go in the red in 7-8 years. What will happen when an additonal 65 million people are added to its roles. What will happen when businesses realize it is cheaper to pay the surtax than it is to offer health insurance, and another 100 million people are forced to join ObamaCare (today known as Medicare)?
The eldery, disabled, and chronically sick -that is, those who need health care the most- will see thier services curtailed in order to bend the cost curve.
There is your Death Panel, Liberal Reader. It is not some nefarious group of ghouls, but instead these panels will be staffed by faceless bureaucrats. To them, Granny fails the cost-benefit analysis.
Angel| 8.14.09 @ 4:57PM
Sure, troll boy. Sarah Palin's use of the term, 'death panel' not only drove the national health care debate, but succeeded in ripping the offending provision from the bill. (We know you'll try to put it back in--but we will be watching you closely.)
Looks to me like the North Star impacted health care policy all the way from Alaska, and she's not even in office anymore! Sarah's fans aren't the only Americans who noticed; you brutish demagogues on the left did too. She's got you squealing like stuck pigs. lol
Liberal Reader| 8.14.09 @ 8:31PM
Angel --
You never make interesting points. I'm not responding to you anymore.
Angel| 8.14.09 @ 9:25PM
Don't whine, Jeremiah--you promised. Big liberal baby.
Not only do I make interesting points, I stick them in your eye. Smarts, don't it?
Angel| 8.14.09 @ 9:30PM
What is it with you, liberals? Why do you hate the truth so much? You remind me of cockroaches and their aversion to light. Pretty d@mn good analogy if I say so myself.