The despicable 'duty to die'

NY Post ^ | May 15, 2010 | Thomas Sowell

[Scanian]

One fashionable notion among some of the intel ligentsia is that old peo ple have "a duty to die," rather than become a burden to others.

This is more than just an idea discussed around a seminar table. Already Britain's government-run medical system is restricting what medications or treatments it will authorize for the elderly. It seems almost certain that similar attempts to contain runaway costs will lead to similar policies when US medical care is taken over by the government.

Make no mistake: Letting old people die is a lot cheaper than spending the kind of money required to keep them alive and well. If a government-run medical system is going to save any serious amount of money, it is almost certain to do so by sacrificing the elderly.

There was a time when some desperately poor societies had to abandon old people to their fate, because there was just not enough margin for everyone to survive. Sometimes the elderly would simply go off to face their fate alone.

But is that where we are today?

[depressed in 06]

And, if you can confiscate their wealth at death you have the best of all worlds. At some point we need to set an upper limit on life. 21 sounds like a good number, after that everything is downhill.

[1951Boomer]

“Intellectuals have a duty to die. Maybe we need a website to tell them how by the age of 25 they can jump off the Golden Gate Bridge or into the Grand Canyon or use some other method that will not inconvenience the rest of us.”

I was just thinking the same sort of thing. What if I said that ignorant, uninformed, low-intelligence voters have a duty to die? What if I said that bratty, feral kids “parented” by parents who are themselves kids have a duty to die? What if I said that know-it-all 20-somethings have a duty to die? I could go on and on. But unlike these liberal fools, I don’t want to play God.

[Vroomfondel]

In the book Moscow 2042, they get a handle on health care costs by deporting anyone who becomes ill.

[Salman]

There will be no death panels. The president said so.

Instead there will be some official making a decision. There might be disagreement on a panel.