For all of you out there that absolutely hate Sarah Palin, I dare you to watch this.
The Slippery Slope in Action
In the current health care bill, the old and terminally ill are required to attend “end of life” counseling.
First:
On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.
The Oregon Death with Dignity Act requires the Oregon Department of Human Services to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate in the Act, and publish an annual statistical report.
Then:
One such patient sought suicide after she had been “parked” in a nursing home for a week by her family. Another with memory problems was “shopped” from doctor to doctor by her daughter (described by a psychologist as “coercive”) who demanded her mother had a “right” to assisted suicide. She ultimately found a physician who approved.
Finally:
Some terminally ill patients in Oregon who turned to their state for health care were denied treatment and offered doctor-assisted suicide instead, a proposal some experts have called a “chilling” corruption of medical ethics.
Since the spread of his prostate cancer, 53-year-old Randy Stroup of Dexter, Ore., has been in a fight for his life. Uninsured and unable to pay for expensive chemotherapy, he applied to Oregon’s state-run health plan for help.
Lane Individual Practice Association (LIPA), which administers the Oregon Health Plan in Lane County, responded to Stroup’s request with a letter saying the state would not cover Stroup’s pricey treatment, but would pay for the cost of physician-assisted suicide.
