WSJ: Obama and Shinseki now pressuring Veterans toward Euthanasia

WSJ: Obama and Shinseki now pressuring Veterans toward Euthanasia


The Wall Street Journal just published a shocking editorial written by a respected University President, confirming the Obama Administration is now using VA hospitals to order doctors to pressure all military veterans to sign "pull the plug" do-not-resuscitate orders, hastening their premature deaths through mandatory "end of life" counseling.

President Jim Towey of Saint Vincent's College, founder of the non-profit "Aging With Dignity" and former White House Director of faith based initiatives, wrote a blistering expose entitled "The Death Book For Veterans," revealing President Obama's new Veterans Administration (VA) directive, presumably signed by VA Secretary, General (ret.) Eric Shinseki, which mandates all veterans' primary care physicians must graphically discuss "end of life planning" with all VA patients (not merely those nearing death), and must refer them to "Your Life, Your Choices," a book that openly encourages Euthanasia and was written with guidance from the group formerly known as the Hemlock Society. That same pro-suicide group now boasts on their web-site of directly leading the charge to ensure "end of life counseling" is mandated in the Obamacare bill, HR 3200.

On page 21 of the Shinseki-mandated Veteran's Euthanasia book, all military veterans are encouraged to complete a checklist of various scenarios, to decide whether their own life would be "not worth living." For example, the booklet asks veterans 7 questions pressuring veterans to sign a "living will" that authorizes doctors to terminate your life, if you are:

1) Living in a nursing home?

2) Being in a wheelchair?

3) Not able to "shake the blues?"

4) Ever heard anyone say, "If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug?"

5) No longer able to contribute to your family's well-being?

6) Are you a severe financial burden to your family?

7) Do you cause severe emotional burden for your family?

"This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable," says Towey, "Worse, a July 2009 VA directive [presumably signed by Shinseki] instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to 'Your Life, Your Choices.' [the Euthanasia booklet.] Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients. America's 24 million veterans deserve better." Towey recommends a "five wishes" living-will document that does not pressure suicide.

But instead the Hemlock Society booklet is now MANDATED for doctor referral to all patients in all VA hospitals, heaping more evidence upon the growing list of proofs that the Obama Administration is LYING TO THE PUBLIC by denying their health care plan pushes Euthanasia on the elderly. They already do it today. Just imagine if ALL hospitals become government-run like the VA.

They have no appreciation of the sacrifices these vets gave cause they never served. It should be a free choice for anyone not something pushed by government.

Bullshit.

The pamphlet has been in use since the middle of the Bush era.

Seems reasonable to me if your are going to send troops into battle that you discuss with each of them what he/she wants done with their remains, or what they wish told their families if they are sent home incompetent.

This shouldn't be a forbidden topic.

And this isn't just theorizing on my part. My BIL was an honor student, got some some sort of student award face to face from JFK. Two college degrees. Then disabled in a traffic accident while on active duty, and abandoned by the VA; sent home for us to take care of 40 years ago now. The recent VA reforms have helped us get him back into the system. But the most striking thing about his case is that nobody ever advised him on anything. 'Tough it out, you're a soldier' seems to be the only planning for his future that he was ever was provided.

Again, that 'deather' argument is pure partisian politics. It's the same political theater as last month when somebody reprinted a years-old policy against bringing swords to the Naval Academy graduation and hung that Bush-era policy on our President Obama as an illustration of Presidential character.

Bullshit.

Let's not confuse "euthanasia" with a "living will." Euthansia is actively causing death. A living will is simply a directive from the patient that they do not want any heroic measures to be taken in the event they need to be resuscitated. A living will can also provide for the removal of hydration and nutrition (at the patient's direction), in the event they succumb to an irreversible vegetative state.

That said, I'm not so sure the gummint should take part in such discussions. At the very least, it could be violative of the Establishment clause of the First Amendment. At worst, it's got a Logan's Run\Soylent Green kinda feel to it.

Here's a more detailed discussion of what the government is/is not suggesting for soldiers and veterans. Again, this is a continuation of policy you should blame Bush's Republican administration for if you don't like it.

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace repeatedly cropped quotes from a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) document to falsely suggest that the Obama administration is pressuring veterans to end their lives prematurely and to accuse Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth of lying about it.

contrary to Wallace's false assertions, the document he referred to does not require doctors to direct veterans to what conservatives have labeled the "Death Book for Veterans."

Junk, lay off that Fox news koolaid. It will fill your head full of their lies every time. It's all a game to improve their ratings, to suck in more of the gullible.

Go see the article I excerpted here.

California said:

Bullshit.

This shouldn't be a forbidden topic. .......... It should be if those sick deem it so!!!

Bullshit.

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and it's bullshit that I should have to pay for any of this bullshit!

You seem to be saying this Advance Directive counseling is forced on the injured and sick.

I doubt it.

Rather, I think this should be among the VOLUNTARY services provided by VA. And also included in what I think is already a US military practice - to encourage servicemen to write a Will before deployment overseas.

Some sevicemen would want to be sustained in an unrecoverable vegetative state if severely injured, some would declare they didn't want that effort made when there was no hope of recovery. And I expect many in this second group would want the decision to discontinue treatment to be made by some member of their family that they themself designate, rather than by a military Death Panel - if there is such a thing.

Different people have different preferences. It seems to me to be a good idea to ask them to declare their preference, while competent, rather than leaving decisions to someone else later.

Apparently what I propose was standard practice all through the Bush years. What is it about President Obama that turns this into a controversy today?

California said:

You seem to be saying this Advance Directive counseling is forced on the injured and sick............... NO SO!

I doubt it.

Rather, I think this should be among the VOLUNTARY services provided by VA. And also included in what I think is already a US military practice - to encourage servicemen to write a Will before deployment overseas.

Some sevicemen would want to be sustained in an unrecoverable vegetative state if severely injured, some would declare they didn't want that effort made when there was no hope of recovery. And I expect many in this second group would want the decision to discontinue treatment to be made by some member of their family that they themself designate, rather than by a military Death Panel - if there is such a thing.

Different people have different preferences. It seems to me to be a good idea to ask them to declare their preference, while competent, rather than leaving decisions to someone else later.

Apparently what I propose was standard practice all through the Bush years. What is it about President Obama that turns this into a controversy today?

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What I'm saying is they should not even be ask! ........... IF anyone does the asking it should be the individual seeking the advice and anyone that feels so strongly about it would seek it and not have it dangled like a carrot to a racehorse.

Offering it is soliciting it and as you can see from the majority in America has deemed it as endorsing and encouraging individuals to end ones life early! ...... just like HR3200

Once again the wingnuts have no idea what they are talking about. Yea, you know who I am talking to.
Doctors at the VA do not try to talk patients into offing themselves. This "editorial" is absurd. If a doctor is doing his job the patient understands his condition and his prospects. The pateint is still in control of his treatment. I am not wasting my typing. This article and the death panels and the rest of the stupid stuff is silly. It causes the wing nuts to loose what little creditablility they might have.