{"id":1112,"date":"2009-08-21T13:51:06","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T13:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2009-08-21T13:51:06","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T13:51:06","slug":"valuing_life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=1112","title":{"rendered":"Valuing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a lot of talk recently about whether or not there are &#8216;death councils&#8217; included in the proposed healthcare bill.&nbsp; Tuesday&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052970204683204574358590107981718.html\">Wall Street Journal<\/a>&nbsp;posted an article on the government&#8217;s involvement in Veteran&#8217;s end-of-life issues.&nbsp; According to the article:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p><em>&#8220;Last year, bureaucrats at the VA&#8217;s National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, &#8220;Your Life, Your Choices.&#8221; It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA&#8217;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 &#8220;Your Life, Your Choices.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This booklet is not helpful in our dealing with America&#8217;s&nbsp;veterans.&nbsp; It may save money if our soldiers opt to refuse care, but&nbsp;to me, that flies totally in the fact of what this country is about.&nbsp; The VA should&nbsp;be ashamed for even putting this book together.<em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The article further points out:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>&#8220;This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable. Worse, a July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to &#8220;Your Life, Your Choices.&#8221; Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition&#8211;all patients. America&#8217;s 24 million veterans deserve better.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a lot of talk recently about whether or not there are &#8216;death councils&#8217; included in the proposed healthcare bill.&nbsp; Tuesday&#8217;s Wall Street Journal&nbsp;posted an article on the government&#8217;s involvement in Veteran&#8217;s end-of-life issues.&nbsp; According to the article: &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=1112\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}