The Obama "Death Panels", what are some "reasonable" qualifications for denying death defying health care?

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

No Death Panels? They Are Here Now.

Written by Gary North on January 24, 2012

When critics of Obamacare warned of death panels, the government dismissed all such talk as scaremongering. There will never be such panels. You have the government’s word.

Oh yeah? Tell it to this mother.

I am going to try and tell you what happened to us on January 10, 2012, in the conference room in the Nephrology department at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

We arrived for our regular Nephrology visit with Amelia’s doctor who has seen her for the last three years. She examines Amelia and sends us for labs. I ask about the transplant and she says we have about six months to a year until she needs one. She tells us she reserved the conference room and when we get back from labs, we can meet with the transplant team and he can tell us about the transplant process.

After the labs, Amelia falls asleep in her stroller and we are called back to a large room with a screen and about sixteen chairs. Joe and I get comfortable and leave a space between us to fit the stroller. After about five minutes, a doctor and a social worker enter the room. They sit across from us but also leave a space between the two of them.

The doctor begins to talk and I listen intently on what he is saying.
He has a Peruvian accent and is small, with brown hair, a mustache and is about sixty five years old. He gets about four sentences out (I think it is an introduction) and places two sheets of paper on the table. I can’t take my eyes off the paper. I am afraid to look over at Joe because I suddenly know where the conversation is headed. In the middle of both papers, he highlighted in pink two phrases. Paper number one has the words, “Mentally Retarded” in cotton candy pink right under Hepatitis C. Paper number two has the phrase, “Brain Damage” in the same pink right under HIV. I remind myself to focus and look back at the doctor. I am still smiling.

He says about three more sentences when something sparks in my brain. First it is hazy, foggy, like I am swimming under water. I actually shake my head a little to clear it. And then my brain focuses on what he just said.

I put my hand up. “Stop talking for a minute. Did you just say that Amelia shouldn’t have the transplant done because she is mentally retarded. I am confused. Did you really just say that?” . . .

Of course that is what he said. He is the member of a death panel. The panel turned thumbs down on this little girl. It’s an IQ issue, you see.

I point to the paper and he lets me rant a minute. I can’t stop pointing to the paper. “This phrase. This word. This is why she can’t have the transplant done.”

“Yes.”

I begin to shake. My whole body trembles and he begins to tell me how she will never be able to get on the waiting list because she is mentally retarded.

A bit of hope. I sit up and get excited.

“Oh, that’s ok! We plan on donating. If we aren’t a match, we come from a large family and someone will donate. We don’t want to be on the list. We will find our own donor.”

“Noooo. She—is—not—eligible –because—of—her—quality–of–life—Because—of—her—mental—delays” He says each word very slowly as if I am hard of hearing.

Are we there yet? For Amedlia, yes. For you, not yet. But soon enough.

The social worker decides to join the conversation. “Well, you know a transplant is not forever. She will need another one in twelve years. And then what? And do you have any idea of the medications she will need to take to keep her healthy?”

I speak through gritted together. “YES, I HAVE DONE ALL MY RESEARCH.”

She smirks a little. “Well, what happens when she is thirty and neither of you are around to take care of her. What happens to her then? Who will make sure she takes her medications then?”

It’s all about money. That’s what socialized medicine is always all about.

The doctor interrupts. He puts his hands up and tries to take a stern voice with me. “These medications she has to take after the transplant, they are very dangerous. They can cause seizures. We have to get the dose exact. They may cause brain damage.”

“DO OTHER CHILDREN WHO HAVE A TRANSPLANT TAKE THIS MEDICATION?”

“Yes, but it is different for her. She is already brain damaged and mentally retarded.”

He pauses as if he is choosing his words carefully. “I have been warned about you. About how involved you and your familiy are with Amelia.”

The next question is clear:

“So you mean to tell me that as a doctor, you are not recommending the transplant, and when her kidneys fail in six months to a year, you want me to let her die because she is mentally retarded? There is no other medical reason for her not to have this transplant other than she is MENTALLY RETARDED!”

“Yes. This is hard for me, you know.”

My eyes burn through his soul as if I could set him on fire right there. “Ok, so now what? This is not acceptable to me. Who do I talk to next?”

“I will take this back to the team. We meet once a month. I will tell them I do not recommend Amelia for a transplant because she is mentally retarded and we will vote.”

“And then who do I see?”

“Well, you can then take it the ethics committee but as a team we have the final say. Feel free to go somewhere else. But it won’t be done here.”

Death panel. Say it to yourself. Death panel.

The official language and the official 'DEATH PANEL' policy has yet to be put in print and made public. Just like our esteemed political leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi,  once told us, "We have to pass the bill before we can tell you what's in it."

We wait to hear and see the "official" version of the 'DEATH PANELS'.

Of course they will be given an obscure pleasing title. And the first assembled 'DEATH PANEL' will be a group of experts, you know like maybe a couple of Nobel prize winners in science and the field of medicine or the humanities . . . . kinda like Obama himself maybe, he's a Nobel winner. And then after the first 100 or maybe the first 1000 patients have been denied the right to life and died, the din and outcry of those who tried to warn us all has faded from our conscience, then, ordinary run of the mill nurses and medical practitioners will be sitting in charge of the 'DEATH PANELS'. 

Our will to live will weaken and the lives of our loved ones will shorten as they approach, pass through, and then recede from the 'DEATH PANELS' holding the official denial in their hands. It will be so much more efficient and ecologically productive don't you see. We can be proud.

The Liberal Progressive democrat plan is waiting . . . . . and no one seems to care . . . . excpt for HIM

[Tami H Dycus]

the din and outcry of those who tried to warn us all has faded from our conscience, how true that statement is. people get all railed up and angry for a few moments and then just become lambs led to the slaughter. this inhuman death panel has to be stopped.

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

Boy Edie, I sure hope you're right!

"everything he did or created will be swept away like the dirt it is" . . . .  I'm taking that quote with me to the voting booth when it's time.

[Edie Boudreau]

I always believed that "No Death Panels" were a lie.  Obama tells nothing but lies, and so do all his sycophants like Nancy Pelosi. But don't give up. If the Supreme Court doesn't deny ObamaCare because of its unconstitutional mandates, Congress can refuse to fund it.  If both of them are under Obama's thumb, then there is the possibility that Obama will finally be proved an illegal, non-citizen President who is guilty of Treason!  Then everything he did or created will be swept away like the dirt it is.  If that doesn't happen, watch out for WE THE PEOPLE, who are ready to sweep away this entire government in the next TEA PARTY!