Even as the cry for a National Health Care plan resounds in the halls of Congress and local State Legislatures, a story coming out of Oregon may have implications into just what the future holds for the formation of a national health care policy.
53-year-old Randy Stroup of Dexter, Oregon suffers from prostate cancer. Stroup has no health insurance and is unable to pay for the expensive chemotherapy so he has applied to Oregon's government health plan to provide the expensive procedures.
In a responsive letter to Strout's request, the Lane Individual Practice Association, administrator of Oregon's Health Plan in Lane County, relied on an Oregon law passed in 1997, the Death with Dignity Act(1) which makes physician assisted suicide legal, when they rejected his application for chemotherapy and opted for the less expensive physician assisted suicide procedure.
Clearly, the implications of this decision are ominous. Reversing the philosophy of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic prohibition, "To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.", together with the "State" promoting the abrogation of God's Commandment prohibiting Murder (from which the prohibition against suicide emanates), the State of Oregon has not only created a new, State modified, religion which bases itself on only a portion of the Ten Commandments, but has accomplished the reversal of the 2400 year old Hippocratic Oath. Not bad for a letter from an insurance administrator.
Perhaps it was the threat of a SCOTUS fight or perhaps, in a spasm of conscience (doubtful), it is being reported that Oregon relented and approved the chemotherapy. However, the nagging question that is raised in my mind is this. If the United States ever embraces the National Health Care that the Liberals promote, will the United States also pass an attendant Death with Dignity Act, giving National Health Care an escape route if a medical procedure is deemed to be too costly? Since the Left Coast is, rapidly, becoming a Mecca for liberal ideas and philosophies, this is something to take seriously.
(1) "On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.
The Oregon Death with Dignity Act requires the Oregon Department of Human Services to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate in the Act, and publish an annual statistical report."
53-year-old Randy Stroup of Dexter, Oregon suffers from prostate cancer. Stroup has no health insurance and is unable to pay for the expensive chemotherapy so he has applied to Oregon's government health plan to provide the expensive procedures.
In a responsive letter to Strout's request, the Lane Individual Practice Association, administrator of Oregon's Health Plan in Lane County, relied on an Oregon law passed in 1997, the Death with Dignity Act(1) which makes physician assisted suicide legal, when they rejected his application for chemotherapy and opted for the less expensive physician assisted suicide procedure.
Clearly, the implications of this decision are ominous. Reversing the philosophy of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic prohibition, "To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.", together with the "State" promoting the abrogation of God's Commandment prohibiting Murder (from which the prohibition against suicide emanates), the State of Oregon has not only created a new, State modified, religion which bases itself on only a portion of the Ten Commandments, but has accomplished the reversal of the 2400 year old Hippocratic Oath. Not bad for a letter from an insurance administrator.
Perhaps it was the threat of a SCOTUS fight or perhaps, in a spasm of conscience (doubtful), it is being reported that Oregon relented and approved the chemotherapy. However, the nagging question that is raised in my mind is this. If the United States ever embraces the National Health Care that the Liberals promote, will the United States also pass an attendant Death with Dignity Act, giving National Health Care an escape route if a medical procedure is deemed to be too costly? Since the Left Coast is, rapidly, becoming a Mecca for liberal ideas and philosophies, this is something to take seriously.
(1) "On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.
The Oregon Death with Dignity Act requires the Oregon Department of Human Services to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate in the Act, and publish an annual statistical report."
http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,392962,00.html
