Ezerwoman's Blog

Last night, I posted a blog with my personal concerns about the Obama administration’s mandate of “end-of-life-care counseling.  Today, I learned that the administration has agreed to remove the regulation.  Officials cited procedural reasons for the decision, although the New York Times indicates political considerations — the enormous outpouring of opposition — played a role.

A presidential official told the press, “We will amend the regulation to take out voluntary advance care planning.”  According to LifeNews.com, this action followed a “massive pro-life backlash.”  For now, government health care won’t include “death panels.”

We must stay on guard.  Disability rights advocates cite alarming problems, including excessive secrecy about assisted suicide deaths, lack of oversight, and no investigation of patient abuse or coercion in states where assisted suicide is legal.  Health care for the terminally ill has been affected.  Wesley J. Smith, for example, offers the example of two cancer patients who were denied Medicare payment for chemotherapy.  Instead, they offered to pay for these individuals’ assisted suicide.  (Visit the Discovery Institute or International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.)