Newsweek: Yes to Death and Rations

The liberal media stands foursquare behind Barack Obama in his plan to ration healthcare to the elderly to save the money needed to socialize medical treatment. Hey, when you entitle an article "The Case for Killing Granny" as Newsweek does, you've shown your underpants to the crowd. Some of the money quotes:

But the need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate. Everyone sees it but no one wants to talk about it. At a more basic level, Americans are afraid not just of dying, but of talking and thinking about death.

Why do all liberals assume stupidity or cowardice as the primary motivator of those that oppose them? How has author Evan Thomas gauged the "fear" of Americans who face death? Me, I've met a few at death's door, and a few (combat soldiers) who were willingly walking towards death. Never saw fear. Sadness, regret, anticipation, but...fear? Never. Takes a coward to assume cowardice in others.

More:

Compared with other Western countries, the United States has more health care—but, generally speaking, not better health care. There is no way we can get control of costs, which have grown by nearly 50 percent in the past decade, without finding a way to stop overtreating patients.

"Overtreating"? We assume Thomas is speaking about seniors, but what about younger patients who may only have, say, a 10% survival rate even with an expensive operation? Is giving them a shot - a longshot - at life going to be worth the money to the federal government? Or will it be considered "overtreatment," given the odds involved? Hence the need to keep "death counseling" in the heathcare bill; apparently, we're gonna need a lot of it.

Some ugly philosophy:

Until Americans learn to contemplate death as more than a scientific challenge to be overcome, our health-care system will remain unfixable.

By studying the causes of death "scientifically", we have added years - productive years - onto the lives not just of all Americans, but of peoples across the globe. I guess when the liberals need to change their rhetoric to fit their ideology - "letting old folks die is progressive!" - even science, their almighty touchstone, can be tossed by the wayside.

Finally:

The hospice ideal recognized that for many people, quiet and dignity—and loving care and good painkillers—are really what's called for.

Hospice services are wonderful. Yet I'd like to see as few people consigned to it as possible. But it seems as if Evan Thomas is offering "morphine and silence" as an alternative to lifesaving medical care, in order to achieve the utopia of socialized medicine in America.

That's not the future I've been hoping for...