Clarifying what "Death Panels" are

Both Lisa Graas and I are fans of conservative pundit, Cal Thomas, but she felt, as I do, that his description of what Sarah Palin meant as "Death Panels" required clarification. It is not hairsplitting to distinguish between discussion of last wishes and denial of care as Lisa explains over at her site.

That is a reference to rationing by the IPAB. Note her reference to Ezekiel Emanuel who proposed a utilitarian system of rationing, which is what the IPAB has the potential to be…with or without end-of-life counseling. For example, if a Down Syndrome child has RSV, a system of rationing wouldn’t require any end-of-life counseling to result in the deteriorating health or death of the child. The only thing necessary for that would be a rationing board (IPAB) saying “no treatment for Down Syndrome children”. The child, then, never even gets to SEE a doctor, let alone any kind of ‘counseling’ coming into play. Understand? (That is, of course, a hypothetical scenario.)

The President, after Palin’s initial note, then came out and mentioned the end-of-life-counseling which she then responded to.

By the way when you find yourself in this situation as you most surely will someday, the National Catholic Biotethics Center has a 24 hour hotline to help counsel you and some general guidelines here
The most important point in discussing end of life care is WHOM you are discussing it with, your faithful pastor, or an agent of death like Judge Greer, who presided over Terri Schiavo's dehydration murder (and is mercifully retiring now).
This is why overturning Obamacare has to be the new Congress' first priority.
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Read Lisa Graas's post here.