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Is Euthanasia Included in National 'Health Care' Reform?

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Does 'Health Care Reform' also require that anyone on Social Security undergo a mandatory counseling session every five years?

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Highlights

By Deacon Keith Fournier
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
7/21/2009 (1 decade ago)

Published in Politics & Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - It seems that wherever you look or listen these days you find President Obama talking up his plan for "Health care Reform." What is clear is that he wants Congress to pass this legislation quickly and present it to him for immediate signature. What is also clear is that anyone who opposes it is now being demonized.

For example, his comments outside of Children's National Medical Center Monday painted the dire picture of "children being denied health care when they have pre-existing conditions." He reminded all who viewed his comments (covered on all the major networks) that "we are a country that always chooses a harder right over an easier wrong." I guess he meant to imply that those who question this plan are simply wrong, no matter their reason.

Oh really Mr. President? Many of us who oppose the current plan do so because the killing of children in the first home of the whole human race, their mother's womb, is considered "health care" under this proposal. Abortion is not health care, it will never be health care; it is the killing of innocent children. The taking of the lives of our first neighbors is always and everywhere wrong.

Mr. President, how does calling abortion a "health care service" possibly line up with your claimed concern for children's health? What about the health of those children whose lives will be taken through procured abortions which, under this plan, would now multiply by being paid for through taxpayer dollars?

Now, it seems that this serious concern we all have for protecting human life and this "Health Care" legislation as it currently exists may actually be an even more deadly matter. By the time I had had my second cup of coffee this morning I received the ninth E-Mail passing on a claim that this plan is fatally infected with the ideology of the culture of death at both ends of life.

Betsy McCaughey is a patient advocate, the founder of the "Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths" and a former lieutenant governor of New York. She was interviewed Monday morning by former Senator Fred Thompson. In that interview she claimed that this same "Health Care Reform" would require that anyone on Social Security undergo a mandatory counseling session every five years.

After receiving that ninth E-mail on this matter, I actually listened to the entire interview. Frankly, it was deeply disturbing. Her further claim is that this mandatory counseling would include a discussion of what are euphemistically called "end of life" options.As a pro-life lawyer of several decades, I know what that phrase entails.

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A quick search of Dr. McCaughey on the internet revealed a flurry of attacks on her claims that this National Health Reform encourages euthanasia. However, it was interesting that none of the attackers refuted her specific claims as they related to the legislation and her references to page numbers in the voluminous bill. They all sought to destroy her credibility through the use of guilt by association tactics.

Therefore, the question still remains on the table. Will this National "Health Care" Plan encourage our elderly to take their own lives rather than somehow become a "drain" on the rest of us? Will it withhold medical care from them based upon a bureaucrat's decision regarding so called "quality of life" issues? Will it encourage the rationing of medical services? Will it counsel the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration in order to expedite their death? In short, is Euthanasia included in this National 'Health Care' Reform?

The more I have looked at the proposals the more it seems not only possible, but probable. After all, when the foundational understanding of the dignity of every human person is removed from our approach to health care in the spring of life, with the acceptance of the killing of innocent children in the womb being considered as a "health service", it is profanely consistent to see the same approach applied in the winter of life.

I want to be proven wrong on this. I want to hear that euthanasia is rejected in the National Health Care proposal. I hope that the E mails I received and the interview I heard concern a fear not founded in reality or an overreaction. I invite responses which will refute the claims of Dr. McCaughey. However, I thought it too important not to bring this urgent matter to the attention of our readers.

In the words of the Encyclical letter, the "Gospel of Life": "Abortion and euthanasia are ... crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. ...In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to "take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it".

This Thursday, major pro-life leaders will holding a webcast entitled "Stop the Abortion Mandate." Information on the webcast can be obtained at http://www.stoptheabortionmandate.com/ I encourage participation in this important event. The pace at which this proposal is being pushed by the President and the recent example of voluminous bills being passed which were not even read, demands a serious review of every aspect of this proposed legislation.

Pray for our Nation. Be prepared to do all you can to stop any effort to use what is called National Health Care Reform to promote and fund the taking of innocent human life at any age or stage.

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Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

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