The Cost of Dying: End-of-Life Care (CBS Pro-Death Panel Propaganda)

CBS News ^ | 8/6/10 | CBS News

[wagglebee]

"I think you cannot make these decisions on a case-by-case basis," Byock said. "It would be much easier for us to say 'We simply do not put defibrillators into people in this condition.' Meaning your age, your functional status, the ability to make full benefit of the defibrillator. Now that's going to outrage a lot of people."

"But you think that should happen?" Kroft asked.

"I think at some point it has to happen," Byock said.

"Well, this is a version then of pulling Grandma off the machine?" Kroft asked.

"You know, I have to say, I think that's offensive. I spend my life in the service of affirming life. I really do. To say we're gonna pull Grandma off the machine by not offering her liver transplant or her fourth cardiac bypass surgery or something is really just scurrilous. And it's certainly scurrilous when we have 46 million Americans who are uninsured," Byock said.

They can call it whatever they want, but they have just described death panels.

[wagglebee]

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[wagglebee]

I can't wait to hear the deathbots explain how 60 Minutes is now a trustworthy news source.

[Rummyfan]

I'm shopping for a new vehicle for my daughter. If I go American it will be a FORD.

[La Lydia]

More enthusiastic pro death-panel propaganda from CBS. “Die, already, Grandma, we can’t afford you because we are taking care of 30 million illegal aliens.” No respect for the aged; no respect for life.

[aberaussie]

bttt

[ConorMacNessa]

The so-called "right to die" is quickly becoming a duty to die.

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[rhombus]

Dang these old people are expensive. I guess we need to take a look at DEATH and convene a PANEL of experts but “let me make myself clear” there will be no DEATH PANELS. ;-)

[metmom]

So now they’re reducing it to $$$$$$’s.

Couldn’t see that one coming, could we?

[dalebert]

I am pro life but have seen doctors do some crazy things..like send a frail 97 year old for pre surgery heart tests knowing full well the old guy couldn't tolerate surgery. right after that his doctor ordered full DNA testing(costly tests) for no reason at all. he was also put in the mental ward for 3 weeks for observation because he did not know what day it was. that cost a bundle ..and very unnecessary. then there is the double billing i get from the hospital every time my mom has a blood test. her insurance has managed to raise the deductible so high it doesn't cover anything. everyone is on the take and tax payers get the bill..obama care does nothing to curb waste but make it possible for more corruption.

[An.American.Expatriate]

So let me see if I have this right:

The medical profession, by prescribing unnecessary treatments, tests, hospital stays, etc ... in a bid to lengthen a life “for another day” (but not actually treat the problem!) cash in for a nice payday

Thus - MEANINGFUL treatment will be denied to those who need it?

[metmom]

"I think you cannot make these decisions on a case-by-case basis," Byock said. "It would be much easier for us to say 'We simply do not put defibrillators into people in this condition.' Meaning your age, your functional status, the ability to make full benefit of the defibrillator. Now that's going to outrage a lot of people."

That's equivalent to a pacemaker. What they're talking about is questioning the necessity of putting in the equivalent of a pacemaker into someone.

We're not talking life support here.

[PeterPrinciple]

Health care has been and always will be rationed. Everyone will not get everything.

The question is who is going to do the rationing. I object to the federal govt doing the rationing, but I don't object to them paying for MY needs.

Sadly it does come down to costs and who will make the decisions. Saying we don't want the feds make these decision is fine, but who is?

We can talk about what we don't want but what are we willing to live with? The more local these decisions are the better in my book. By local I mean me, then family, then county if needed and maybe state? The decisions will not be perfect but they for damn sure aren't perfect now.

An interesting observation. Mental health has stayed a local county fiscal repsonsibility here in Iowa and if I remember right, the biggest expense is mental health. I want to say 40-50% but don't know for sure.

I have also observed an ex prisoner receive free cancer treatment and not bother to show up for his appts, continue to smoke and expect me to pay for his motel room when he did go for appts.

[PeterPrinciple]

In almost every business, cost-conscious customers and consumers help keep prices down. But not with health care. That's because the customers and consumers who are receiving the care aren't the ones paying the bill.

---

Can anyone argue with this?

[fruser1]

Can’t avoid rationing/death panels w/government paying.
Only way to avoid is to get gov’t out of it altogether.
Families can decide based on their own finances.

[BykrBayb]

What a disgusting hit-piece! The tone of the article is that "Granny is gluttonously sucking up our limited resources, just to keep her rickety old bag of bones "alive" at a time when she should be doing a double-half-pike off the high dive into a six-foot hole." They talk about good deaths and bad deaths as if they should be scored like an olympic event.

The main source of the article, Dr. Ira Byock, seems to have aspirations of being the next Doctor Death. He tries to browbeat one of his patients, Charlie Haggart, into giving up the ghost, but Haggart is having none of it. He wants to live. Byock tries to convince him that his life will have no value, and Haggart replies "It beats second place."

Sometimes the good doctor does get his way, even if he has to "bend the rules a little."

Marcia Klish might have lingered for quite some time in the intensive care unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. But Dr. Byock and his team had a number of meetings with her closest friend, Barbara Menchin. She said Klish would not want to be kept alive on machines if there was no meaningful hope of recovery.

It was decided the doctors would not try to resuscitate her if her condition worsened, which it soon did.

"Her heart has just flipped into a rhythm that doesn't allow it to beat effectively," Byock told Menchin.

Klish died a few moments later.

Not a great death, because after all, the victim didn't agree to it. But I'm sure they'd score it at least 9.2.

[Little Ray]

I have always known that abortion was just the lip of a slippery slope.
What I never realized was just how steep that slope was...

[A. Morgan]

What’s the difference between the Taliban and the Egenicists?

[stuartcr]

What do you think should be done?