Free Republic

Does Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel believe Joe Biden would be better off dead? That would be a peculiar position for Biden's chief adviser on medical issues and a member of the candidate's Public Health Advisory Committee to take. But if we accept the reasoning behind Emanuel's infamous 2014 essay, Biden is nothing more than a resource-sucking shell of himself who should stop trying to prolong his life. I suspect that if one of Trump's advisers on coronavirus had once taken to the august pages of The Atlantic to reason that men who reach the age of 75 are useless to society,...

Through the garbled word soup of fancy buzzwords and bureaucratic newspeak, officials in Washington state are basically saying they are preparing to ration health services, with those whom the state seems as less desirable to receive less attention and care. In the age of what’s pretty much Bernie Sanders’s wet dream of socialized healthcare, there simply aren’t enough resources to care for everyone.The Seattle Times reports: Washington state and hospital officials have been meeting to consider what once was almost unthinkable — how to decide who lives and dies if, as feared, the coronavirus pandemic overwhelms the state’s health care...

An Ohio doctor accused of ordering excessive and potentially fatal doses of opioids to dozens of near-death patients is facing multiple counts of murder, prosecutors announced Wednesday. William Husel voluntarily surrendered to authorities and was charged in 25 deaths following a six-month investigation by the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office. The patient deaths exposed a stunning case of medical oversight and alleged medical malpractice, and called into question how repeated failures potentially involving 30 or more employees could have gone unchecked for so long. Husel, 43, was employed with the Mount Carmel Health System, one of the largest in central Ohio,...

FULL TITLE: Dying anorexia patient, 25, is denied treatment for the disorder by her insurance company who claim 'it's a luxury' as her weight drops to 58lbs A 25-year-old woman with a debilitating eating disorder is preparing for the possibility of an early death as her insurance company treats a medical program she requires to live on as a luxury. Katrina Howard, who succumbed to anorexia nervosa in her early teen years, has been sent from hospital to hospital for treatment - but doctors fear they are running out of effective options for the young woman - who has whittled...

There’s no easy way to discuss end-of-life care. And there’s no easy way for patients and families to make decisions related to it. But there are advances in technology that could help providers frame the discussion to help patients and families better understand their situation and gain confidence in the choice they are making. “I do believe that we’re really at a point that we’re starting to see data analytics and predictive modeling for individuals, especially as we start to look at population health,” says Michael L. Munger, MD, a family physician in Overland Park, Kansas, and president of the...

Charlie Gard will be allowed to die after his parents today made the heartbreaking decision to let him 'slip away'. Chris Gard and Connie Yates arrived at the High Court in tears as they ended a campaign to save his life that has touched millions around the world. They have battled for six months for their beloved 11-month-old son to be flown to the US for pioneering drugs to treat his rare strain of mitochondrial disease. But they have now decided to let him die clearly believing that Great Ormond Street's refusal to let him travel to a New York...

Judge rules Great Ormond Street hospital can withdraw life support for Charlie Gard after doctors say he has brain damageDoctors can withdraw life-support treatment from a sick baby boy against his parents’ wishes, a high court judge has ruled. Specialists at Great Ormond Street hospital (GOSH) in central London had told the court they believed it was time to stop providing life support for eight-month-old Charlie Gard, who has a rare genetic condition. Doctors treating the infant say he has brain damage and should be moved on to a palliative care regime. His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, of...

Over 500 organizations are calling on Congress to repeal a Medicare cost-cutting board that is part of ObamaCare. The panel at issue is called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and is charged with coming up with ways to cut Medicare spending. Legislation to repeal the board sponsored by Reps. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) has 222 co-sponsors, including 19 Democrats. While some opponents of ObamaCare have called the IPAB a “death panel,” the board is banned by law from recommending changes that would ration care or require seniors to pay a higher share of costs. Its reforms...

Hospital staff broke the news to a Tacoma, Wash. woman that her operation to remove a tumor from her breast would not be happening. Medical benefits tied to her retired husband’s U.S. Army service had expired just 12 hours before, a detail on the 41-year-old woman’s benefits card that no one noticed until she was already prepped for surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center, according to a KING-TV report. Patricia Zuniga described the bearers of bad news as “upfront” about the awkward discovery. “You’re not having your surgery today. You do not have health care. You do not have benefits,”...

... Regardless of whether you're a supporter or opponent of Obamacare, you may have missed an important "ruling" from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week that resulted in Obamacare logging a key victory. The case, Coons vs. Lew, was initially brought to court in 2011 by business owner Nick Coons and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Eric Novack. The two, with the help of additional legal backing, alleged that the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, would trim Medicare costs and potentially hurt their business by instituting reimbursement levels that wouldn't cover their own expenses. These allegations are where the term...

Nancy Pelosi got herself to a microphone this week and reminded the good people of America that time is running out to sign up for Obamacare. "As a nice Valentine day," the Minority Leader offered, "you can take your loved one to sign up for the Affordable Care Act." At first I thought the sentence didn't make sense grammatically. It should be, "As a nice Valentine's Day gift," or “For a nice Valentine's Day gift," but then I thought, it really will take you all day, in a quasi-romantic huddle, close together in front of a computer monitor, as you...

She was vilified as ignorant, alarmist, extreme and right-wing when former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tried to tell Americans that yes, the Affordable Care Act – a.k.a. Obamacare – created so-called “death panels.” But of course, she has since been proven correct, even though they are not identified as “death panels” specifically in the language of the law. President Obama and the Democrats who passed this abomination would never be so politically bold or so politically honest; then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California famously said that Congress would “have to pass the bill so that” Americans...

FULL TITLE: Doctors decided this baby’s life wasn’t worth saving. Now a Missouri legislator wants to make sure it never happens again. Imagine being in a hospital watching your recently born child gasp for air as his or her oxygen levels plummet. Imagine watching in horror as medical professionals stand by doing absolutely nothing, indicating to you through body language and inaction that your son or daughter is not worth saving. This is exactly what befell Sheryl and Scott Crosier, of St. Louis, Missouri, in December 2010 when they lost their three-month-old son Simon who had the chromosomal abnormality Trisomy...

PORTLAND, OR — A 29-year-old terminally ill woman who expects to take her life under Oregon's death-with-dignity law has released a new video, saying she's feeling better and might postpone the day she had planned to die.

Contra Ezekiel Emanuel, age is no absolute barometer for human vitality and dignity. Normally, no one would care that in a recent Atlantic essay — “Why I Hope to Die at 75” — 57-year-old Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel argued that living to be 75 years old was long enough for anyone. After 75, Emanuel suggests, “We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.” But Emanuel is no garden-variety crackpot. Nor is he a wannabe science-fiction writer dreaming of a centrally planned planet of robust youthful humanoids. Unfortunately, he was one of the chief architects...

Belgium’s Minister of Justice approved a euthanasia request Monday from a convicted rapist serving a life sentence. The Brussels court of appeal will review the case September 29, but Belgian media report it is expected simply to record the existence of the agreement between the man and the government. This would not be the first euthanasia of a Belgian prisoner – a terminally ill man who had already spent 27 years in jail was legally killed two years ago – but in the case of Frank Van Den Bleeken, the euthanasia request is being linked to the conditions of his...

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A veteran is extremely disappointed with the Veterans Administration after he says he was locked inside a community clinic for hours on Monday. Jeffrey Duck explained that he arrived at the clinic located on South Volusia Ave. at 1 p.m. as a “walk in” patient. The Marine veteran sat in a consultation room for more than three hours before he realized he was the only one left in the building. “I was apparently left there and forgotten,” Duck told WKMG. Duck began taking video of him walking around the lobby with his cellphone to show that he wasn’t trying to...

Linda Rolain passed away at her Las Vegas home on Monday Her family had joined two lawsuits against the State of Nevada and the company that set up its troubled online software, Xerox She had tried to enroll in the state's health exchange in November and after numerous issues, finally paid in January for coverage to start in March But when she went to get treatment, there was no record of her name and she finally received an insurance card in May She underwent surgery in mid-May but struggled to recover Robert Rolain, who lost 60 pounds due to stress,...

No line in bioethics is ever fixed. Rather, the push to eradicate the boundaries that keep medical professionalism tied to Hippocratic values (sniffed at as “paternalism” by many in the field) continues unabated, with new boundary lines created, consolidated, and then moved again into ever-more extreme territory.Some call this, the “slippery slope.” Case in point: Suicide by starvation, known as VSED (voluntary stop eating and drinking). Not only do bioethicists say doctors should participate in this method of suicide by palliating the pain starvation and dehydration causes, but also DO IT FOR THE PATIENT if they stated they wanted to...