This is the article by lying liar Krauthammer that Fallows is referring to, wherein Krauthammer concludes that it is "obvious" that it's better to rely upon the wishes of family and friends then some "form" somebody checked off "some fine summer's day years before being stricken." Really? Terri Schiavo might beg to differ.
It is simply a lie to say that mere discussions about late stage health care and end-of-life decisions will influence people (subtly or otherwise) to die early against their will (or be "euthanized", which isn't even legal in any state in the nation.) I'm not even going to assume for the purposes of argument, like Fallows does, that there might be such an effect because there isn't. And it is a pernicious and malicious lie at that, because this lie-whose primary goal is to scare idiots and the uninformed into being afraid of health care reform-will also have the incidental effect of encouraging people to avoid not only getting medical powers of attorney or advanced directives (also known as "living wills") but to avoid even talking about how much treatment they want before they die. It would not surprise me in the least to find out that there are literally thousands of people who, thanks to the casual but malicious lying of people like Krauthammer and McCaughey, will now delay or avoid having discussions about end of life care with their doctors or their family members, for fear that they might be giving somebody permission to stick a needle in them and send them off to the great beyond earlier than they might like. So what will they get instead? They will get family members arguing over how "grandma" wants to die (and sometimes going to court about it, a la Schiavo) or if they are alone, they will have anonymous doctors or hospital administrators or courts make the decision for them. Some of them will die in agony, when had someone spent fifteen minutes talking to them about it, they might have decided to die another way. Perhaps even some will be disconnected from life support because their family "knows" it's how they want to die (and anyway, best to get to probating grandma's estate so they can get her china) when in fact that person would have preferred to hang on until even machines couldn't keep them alive.
Before this health care reform "debate" you couldn't find anyone but the perhaps the most conservative, pro-life Catholics who would be against medical powers of attorney, or advance directives, or even mere discussions with family members or doctors about end of life care. That's because everyone with any amount of intelligence and compassion would rather let the individual make decisions about their own end of life care, whether they do it by advising family members they trust on what to do, or grant someone else the authority to make decisions for them, or advise doctors in advance what they want done. This is especially the case with the legal community, as both lawyers and judges have seen quite directly the effects of a failure to plan for the end of life, and are routinely advising people to get documents that will assure that their wishes are carried out both as and after they die.
But thanks to lying liars like Krauthammer and McCaughey, progress on this front has probably been set back a good ten or twenty years, all because defeating health care reform justifies any lie, no matter how pernicious or no matter the effect it has on actual, real people. I'm not a Christian, and even if I was I doubt I'd believe in Hell. But if there is one, it is my most sincere and fondest wish that there is a special circle reserved for the likes of Krauthammer and McCaughey, and all those who lie without regard to the impact their lies have on the lives and deaths of real people.
Would you rather live in liberal California or a red state?
Columbia university: Oh, just another fascist Islamic genocide pusher [Tarek Bazrouk]