Let the Adults Discuss End of Life Care.

"Will Congress ultimately trust that American adults are capable of deciding important matters in their lives and eventual deaths? Or will they conclude that we don't want to know about our choices, can't handle important end-of-life decisions, and are better off without such considerations in the public dialogue?" asks Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion and Choices in a post for Huffpo on September 8.

She continues:

Powerful forces resist bestowing authority on individuals to choose appropriate medical care for themselves. Behind the hyperbole about "death panels" lies a more nuanced attack on advanced directives themselves. The language is more subtle but its intent is unmistakably patronizing. These advocates would "protect senior citizens," from their own stated wishes, claiming seniors are "vulnerable people," "easily susceptible to pressure," and not capable of making important decisions. This line of thinking asserts advance directives should be "only one factor a doctor takes into consideration" because the patient who wrote it "didn't know at the time what it would be like." Some even assert your living will should be ignored completely because others know what's best for you. Father knows best.

Think for a second that she is overblowing the paternal tone that opponents to health care reform - or Death with Dignity - have adopted? Check out The American Life League sadly proving Coombs Lee's point with a video on the covert agenda of the "culture of death" agents and cronies (aka Senators) behind health care reform.

If it's necessary, here are a few debunked silly conflations from the video:

*end of life care is not euthanasia

*giving seniors choice in how to die is not the government "agreeing to deny artificial nutrition and hydration" (ANH)

*self-selected denial of ANH has nothing to do with Terri Schiavo

*stakeholders is a legal term, duh

*consulting with your family about end of life choices doesn't only "mean money"

*allowing seniors to direct their medical choices is not a slippery slope to mass government killing of, well, anyone

*"linguistic acrobatics" are apparently not only the purview of health care reformers

The recent putsch-ing by conservatives could perhaps be halted by a little time out? Let the adults discuss end of life issues for a while.

via Catholicfire blog.