[tri-med] Re: Obama's thoughts/words re rationing.

Obama Bin Laden's speech is pretty scary.
Annette



--- On Mon, 5/18/09, Barbara Farlow <b_farlow@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Barbara Farlow <b_farlow@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [tri-med] Obama's thoughts/words re rationing.
To: "tri med lists" <tri-med@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, May 18, 2009, 5:11 PM

Hi Jayne, 
Thanks for your kind words. I am doing what I feel I have to do and the more I 
learn, the more concerned I am. 

It doesn't hurt to be aware and involved with these issues. I am not sure if 
the issues boil down to private vs universal health care. 

Sadly, many of the pro-futility care advocates are claiming that a certain 
quality of life is futile. In other words, they have moved past the definition 
of whether life is sustainable to the question of "with what quality?

I have spent a lot of time researching publications on tri13/18 and believe me, 
the description is very bleak. There is no suggestion whatsoever that the 
preservation of the life of a child with tri13/18 is a good idea. 

Here is an excerpt of Obama's speech. The thought is that certain
medical treatments will be legislated. That way, a patient cannot sue
the doctor for not providing requested care. There is no doubt that rationing 
has arrived. 

When my grandmother got very ill
during the campaign, she got cancer; it was determined to be terminal.
And about two or three weeks after her diagnosis she fell, broke her
hip. It was determined that she might have had a mild stroke, which is
what had precipitated the fall.

So now sheâ??s in the hospital,
and the doctor says, Look, youâ??ve got about â?? maybe you have three
months, maybe you have six months, maybe you have nine months to live.
Because of the weakness of your heart, if you have an operation on your
hip there are certain risks that â?? you know, your heart canâ??t take it.
On the other hand, if you just sit there with your hip like this,
youâ??re just going to waste away and your quality of life will be
terrible.

And she elected to get the hip replacement and was
fine for about two weeks after the hip replacement, and then suddenly
just â?? you know, things fell apart.

I donâ??t know how much that
hip replacement cost. I would have paid out of pocket for that hip
replacement just because sheâ??s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the
aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or
everybody elseâ??s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when
theyâ??re terminally ill is a sustainable model, is a very difficult
question. If somebody told me that my grandmother couldnâ??t have a hip
replacement and she had to lie there in misery in the waning days of
her life â?? that would be pretty upsetting.

...I think that there
is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors,
scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very
difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very
difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through
the normal political channels. And thatâ??s part of why you have to have
some independent group that can give you guidance. Itâ??s not
determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance.
And thatâ??s part of what I suspect youâ??ll see emerging out of the
various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill
right now.Barb

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live helps you keep up with all your friends, in one place.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkidâ??60826
                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line




      
                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

Other related posts: