Let’s see if we can have a reasoned discussion about end-of-life counseling.We might start by asking Sarah Palin to leave the room. I’ve got nothing against her. She’s a remarkable political talent. But there are no “death panels” in the Democratic health-care bills, and to say that there are is to debase the debate.(Emphasis mine)
Quackhammer then proceeds to repeat the very meme he was to debunk, i.e. that ObamaCare will eat your grandmother. Schizophrenic much?
No, say the defenders. It’s just that we want the doctors to talk to you about putting in place a living will and other such instruments. Really? Then consider the actual efficacy of a living will. When you are old, infirm and lying in the ICU with pseudomonas pneumonia and deciding whether to (a) go through the long antibiotic treatment or (b) allow what used to be called “the old man’s friend” to take you away, the doctor will ask you at that time what you want for yourself — no matter what piece of paper you signed five years earlier.You are told constantly how very important it is to write your living will years in advance. But the relevant question is what you desire at the end — when facing death — not what you felt sometime in the past when you were hale and hearty and sitting in your lawyer’s office barely able to contemplate a life of pain and diminishment.
Well, as pain and diminishment enter your life as you age, your calculations change and your tolerance for suffering increases. In the ICU, you might have a new way of looking at things.
Aha. Health care reform will make you not want to spend another six months hooked to a machine, unable to leave your bed, while life goes on and your kids’ inheritance gets drained and you watch your family’s whispered arguments over who has to stay with you. Sounds great — where do I sign up for this wonderful program?
Death, like taxes, is inevitable; this reality is slowly filtering into the minds of Medicare patients, so in the wake of his schizoid opening Quackhammer attempts another mixed message. After arguing that living wills are bad, he admits he has nothing against them.
He even proceeds to offer a precis of his own living will — “more a literary document,” he claims — complete with baseball metaphors. Because legal documents are well-known for their literary value to baseball fans.
There’s no scenario in Quackhammer’s mind where patients are no longer able to announce these decisions for themselves. Furthermore, what he’s denouncing is an amendment that would merely pay your doctor to have a conversation with you. His Wacky™ would only guarantee the poor don’t have as much preparation as the “literary.”
But back to Teh Crazy™. Quackhammer drew fire from conservatives; he was panned by Hot Air and Little Green Footballs. But in the minds of the most rabid Palin supporters, he committed the ultimate sacrilege: implying that Miss Alaska is not smart. Several blogs denounced him, and the comments were vicious.
But reading the blogs, I realized something: even on the right, belief in “death panels” is starting to peak as more and more media sources debunk the rumor. In fact, it is just about the only rumor being consistently debunked.
Krauthammer is making an ill-advised attempt to eject Teh Crazy™ and shock new life into a dead talking point — he’s a witch doctor blowing powder and shouting buggidyboo to raise up some Zombie Outrage™. Someone should tell him that Sarah has a serious problem with witch doctors.
