Excerpted from Three Scary ObamaCare "Czars"
Dr. "Zeke" Emmanuel and the Complete Lives System
Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel works in the White House Office of Management and Budget as a health-policy advisor and he is a member of the Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. Dr. Emmanuel is one of the pillars of Obama's reform. However Dr. Emmanuel has stated repeatedly in public forums such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that doctors were driving up health-care costs because they value the Hippocratic Oath as "an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of cost or effect on others."
Instead, Dr. Emmanuel raises the possibility of a new ethical system, the "Complete Lives System" that would ration care away from the elderly, away from infants, and away from human beings judged unable to rationally participate in society (such as those with dementia), in favor of those aged 15-44, who have the best chance "to live a complete life."
Dr. Emmanuel's theory of rationing, however, could end up being applied in a severe national economic crisis, far worse than the current recession, and not unlike the Great Depression that crippled Germany. Germany had made the mistake of trying to dig itself out of its staggering national debt by heavily inflating the money supply in order to save its economy. Beck makes the point that this is not too dissimilar to the United States' attempt to stimulate its economy, which unable to borrow more money from creditor-nations like China, has instead borrowed cash from the printing presses of the Federal Reserve.
Such a system could be implemented and recommended to the government insurance programs or private companies participating in the Health Insurance Exchange by means of a Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research and its advisory panels as proposed in HR 3200 "America's Affordable Health Choices Act," which soon enough may be named for the departed Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin brought attention to this fact in a Facebook statement that charged Obama and Dr. Emmanuel would turn the health-care system into a "death panel." (see coverage here and here)
But as Beck points out, Dr. Emmanuel may not believe that people who can't become developed citizens are not "basic" and "should not be guaranteed," but he is not alone in his thinking. Obama's "Science Czar" John Holdren does him one better: some people are not yet human.
John Holdren: Not Even Born Babies are Human … Yet
John Holdren is President Obama's Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Beck says he is another key player in Obama's health-care reform. But Holdren has a life-long obsession with population control and has written two books outlining a host of options to deal with what he sees as a global crisis of "human overpopulation."
Beck points out that Holdren has this to say about who is human and who is not, and babies do not qualify as human beings: "The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experience and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being."
Holdren co-authored a college textbook called "Ecoscience" in which he advanced the idea that forced abortion and sterilization of women is justifiable under the US Constitution, and that sterilizing agents could be added to the drinking water in order to curb the growth of human populations.
That background does not sick well with Americans trying to judge for themselves whether to trust the safety and effects of the hastily approved H1N1 "swine flu" vaccine. Holdren has urged Americans to take the vaccine warning that up to 90,000 Americans could die from the virus this season - although to date less only 500 Americans have died of the virus. Many are wary of taking the fast-tracked vaccine citing the 1976 swine flu scare in which the vaccine killed more people than the disease and left many more with a nerve disease called Guillian Barre syndrome.
Cass Sunstein and Rationing by QALY
Cass Sunstein, Obama's appointed advisor to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, shares opinions in common with Dr. Emmanuel and John Holdren when it comes to health-care rationing and the dignity of the human person. If Sunstein's appointment is not rejected by the Senate, then Sunstein will oversee the OIRA, which creates government regulations for federal laws.
Sunstein advocates rationing based on "quality-adjusted life years" (QALY), meaning that the government would evaluate statistically whether a person's life is worth the cost of living.
Sunstein is a radical animal rights thinker, who believes that animals such as dolphins and whales should have legal representation. Sunstein counts Princeton philosopher Peter Singer among his closest friends. Singer believes that children under the age of seven do not have sufficient rationality to count as human beings, and for that reason parents could commit infanticide.
Sunstein has also stated a desire to regulate the internet in order to fight what he calls a "system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government."
Beck? I would check your sources. 99% of what this guy says is not even fact.
ReplyDeleteBTW...I am almost certain that John Holdren, in particular, was confirmed in a unanimous decision by the US Senate. Yes, that means that every Republican and both Independents approved John Holdren to direct the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Besides, what is so scary about "Czars." This is a term that has been used for decades. Didn't Reagan and Bush appoint a bunch of Czars too? Drug Czars, Sience Czars, Terrorism Czars, etc...
Anyway, go right ahead and live your life in fear. After all, it is your choice.
Side note: Love that C.S. Lewis quote you put up there on the blog. One of my personal favs -
"I believe in Christ like I believe that the sun. Not only because I see it, but because by it all things are seen."