From what I've seen and read...the only thing even CLOSE to euthanasia......and this is a HUGE stretch....is palliative care. Palliative Care is when a person is dying of a disease and there is no hope of recovery. Let's say you have lung cancer...you've tried all avenues to get it into remission....you had your right lung removed, you've done the courses of Chemotherapy and radiation, and the damned cancer won't stop growing inside you. Your Oncologist tells you in no uncertain terms that there's nothing left for them to try and that in 3-6 months you will die.
He recommends Hospice to come into you and your family's lives. The hospice team is specially trained to deal with death and dying and to make it as painless as humanely possible while preserving as.much dignity as possible for you and your family. This includes the use of narcotics to control the pain, real therapeutic counseling for you and your family to help deal with the stress and fear of your.passing, including involving your pastor(if you're religious).
This is not euthanasia....this is compassion.
There's a big difference between "We can't save your life, and we're going to make your end painless" and "We don't want to save your life, and we're going to kill you". For some reason, though, people have a hard time discerning that.
Well....if you really want to take an HONEST look at that, how many.people has our own private sector, for profit insurance.companies killed because they denied claims, dropped people and got out of paying because of the "pre-existing condition" loophole?
If you REALLY want to talk about Death Panels....take a look at the actuaries who decide to cut people off when the "risk" of losing some money is unacceptable.
But, I'm betting you really don't want to be honest, do you?
Oh, you want to be honest? Okay, let's REALLY be honest.
How about we start with the peculiar notion that if Entity #1 refuses to provide funding for Entity #2's medical procedure, Entity #1 has "killed" Entity #2? I'm not even sure where to start listing the things that are ridiculous and wrong about that perspective on the world; and honesty demands that I tell you that if this is truly the attitude from which you approach life, then you and I have nothing to talk about, because while we will both be using English words, we will not be speaking the same language.
The second stop on the Honesty Tour requires us to look at how people approach having private insurance, and feel free to stop me if you think I'm incorrect or dishonest about any of this. When a person signs up for private health insurance, he is issued a thick packet of information detailing, with excruciating precision, exactly what treatments and procedures are included in the coverage he's getting.
Now, most people in America don't even read for entertainment, let alone read long and quite boring legal documents such as their insurance coverage handbook. So at best, they skim through it, and at worst, they disregard it entirely beyond the amount that their premiums will cost them every month. Rather than actually knowing EXACTLY what is and isn't covered, and under what circumstances, they simply assume that "obviously, this is covered, because it ought to be". Then, when something non-routine and expensive comes up, they compound their mistake by not bothering to call the insurance provider and verify their coverage for that situation. And when the bill is submitted to the insurance provider and rejected, they ***** and moan and whine about how they were "cheated" out of their "rightful" coverage, and the coldhearted, greedy insurance bastards "killed" the patient. Oh, and they seldom provide for any sort of backup plan along the lines of "it's my health, perhaps I should be responsible for it".
The third stop on the Honesty Tour is the fact that when one is dealing with private insurance companies, one has recourse to the government via the legal system should they deny coverage for something which was, in fact, promised to be covered. But if the insurance provider IS the government, then where do you go? You don't know pain-in-the-ass red tape until you've tried to challenge a Medicaid or Medicare ruling regarding coverage.
But, I'm betting you really don't want to be honest, do you?