I have noticed in the last year that the assisted suicide ideologues at Compassion and Choices are trying to reposition the organization–formerly the Hemlock Society–as the go-to group on information and methods of dying. It began with California’s AB 2747, pushed by C and C, which would have permitted patients to demand terminal sedation if diagnosed with one year or less to live. That part didn’t pass, but the part that did was for doctors to notify such patients of all their end of life options, e.g., hospice, self starvation, palliative sedation, etc, and/or refer to outside organizations–guess who–to provide that information. And remember, if assisted suicide becomes more generally legal, that might become part of the counseling, too.
Well, in the brouhaha over the end of life counseling in the House health reform bill, C and C claims to have helped write the controversial provisions in question. From its blog:
Compassion & Choices has worked tirelessly with supportive members of congress to include in proposed reform legislation a provision requiring Medicare to cover patient consultation with their doctors about end-of-life choice (section 1233 of House Bill 3200).
Now that’s interesting. Either the group is puffing its legislative role to get donations, or its representatives really did help write the language–which I have noted previously, includes referrals to outside groups as part of what a doctor could do in providing the counseling. Ironic that: The mess that is section 1233 helped spring the leak in the Obamacare boat. And it has just been removed in the Senate version of the bill.
I have suspected it, and now I know it: Compassion and Choices is seeking to become the Planned Parenthood of death. And don’t think they will not be after public funding at some point. Let’s work hard to make sure that never happens.
August 15th, 2009 | 1:32 pm
Even doctors (experienced and ethical ones, anyway) know, and say outright, that these predictions and diagnoses of how long a person has to live are notoriously unreliable. What in God’s name is wrong with them that they dare to make these predictions and diagnoses, and what in God’s name is wrong with people that they listen to these marmalukes? So they’re doctors. So what? Sew buttons. It makes as much sense as someone falling into the “living will” trap (and yet people do, like sheep) and signing their own death warrant before they even ever have experienced the situation in question, or presuming to know what an older person is experiencing when one has never been old oneself, or to opine about anyone else, period. Doctors know certain things, and that’s very nice. But how did people get so stupid as to be willing to believe them just because they are doctors, and how did doctors get so arrogant and stupid as to make such statements? Partly by being allowed to experiment on non-human animals. Oh, what’s the use. The rampant stupidity out there is so prevalent that it’s no wonder SHS is necessary. And SHS doesn’t even get it entirely.
August 15th, 2009 | 5:20 pm
Wesley: I recently spoke to a local C&C chapter and found their lay members (not their leaders) to be surprisingly uneducated about the plethora of effective and compassionate care options at the end of life that didn’t involve self-euthanasia or refusing food & fluids. Like many on the far right, they hold irrational fears. They fear being forced to die lingering and painful deaths with their wishes, autonomy, and dignity being ignored by “outside forces” hellbent on imposing “their” ideology into “our” final days. When they were told about the range of hospice and palliative care services available to terminally ill folks and how effective advance care planning can endure that these services are there when they are needed, the whole tenor of the conversation changed. Seeing “self-deliverance” (to use Humphrey’s euphemistic expression) as an unnecessary option for the majority of terminal patients constitutes a notable improvement in this discussion. Good information (delivered non-judgmentally) can sometimes accomplish this.
August 15th, 2009 | 6:50 pm
Sure, the victims are in a different age group but C&C can’t become the PP of death. Planned Parenthood already is an organization dedicated to death.
August 15th, 2009 | 9:32 pm
[...] the Planned Parenthood of death. If I am right, someday look for the group to seek federal funding. More, over at Secondhand Smoke. Comments [...]
August 16th, 2009 | 1:36 am
Despite my pro life stance, I do think there’s an important difference to remember between CC and PP. PP performs a procedure that is recognized as legal now because the entities dying during the procedure are not recognized as persons under the law. CC would like that same status extended to those with serious illnesses and disabilities. In short, we can still prevent this from happening in the law if we work really hard. If we don’t “win,” people with disabilities will loose their status as fully developed entities with protection under the law, including protection from self harm. In this sense, CC’s mission is much worse, because it wants to push us into a new realm of death that includes those who were formerly protected.
August 16th, 2009 | 5:25 pm
Ditto here in noticing, well, really the very same thing.. Can’t help thinking that they are one and the same with the other but pretend to be segregated so the message never skips a beat when some get arrested or what have you..
They do seem to be full of themselves recently.. Noted something similar myself recently.. Good for them.. Helps update us.. :GRIN:
Warmest wishes from Talking Rock..
August 16th, 2009 | 10:24 pm
[...] life counseling into voluntary rationing are all so much fear mongering. Indeed, all it does (despite Compassion and Choices being at the table helping to create the provision), we have been lectured, is pay doctors and nurses to help people on Medicare with advance [...]
August 20th, 2009 | 2:46 am
Okakura: perhaps we need more “infiltrators”! Seems that conversations like yours are extremely valuable.
August 21st, 2009 | 7:56 pm
Compassion & Choices had no role in writing this legislation. We enthusiastically offered our support after the bipartisan legislation was introduced last year by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer. We also support Sen. Jay Rockefeller and others’ legislative proposals to provide Medicare reimbursement for end-of-life consultations between physicians and patients.
We are part of a broad coalition of medical, senior, faith and health organizations supporting Medicare reimbursement for end-of-life consultations. These organizations include the Catholic Health Association, Providence Health and Services and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. None of these groups, or Compassion & Choices, wrote the end-of-life counseling provision. Section 1233 was written by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer.
Hope that clears up this latest misconception.
Carla Axtman
Online Community Builder
Compassion & Choices
compassionandchoices.org
August 22nd, 2009 | 7:18 am
Just took another peek at the highlighted section in particular.. That “Compassion & Choices had no role in writing this legislation” is absolutely *not* the message being conveyed in the verbiage used on your website. It comes across that you, C&C, absolutely indeed were *very* actively participating in a very specific drafting of a very specific portion of H.R. 3200..
August 22nd, 2009 | 3:51 pm
[...] the assisted suicide advocacy group Compassion and Choices–formerly the Hemlock Society–brags about contributing to the end of life counseling section of the bill. Finally, despite repeated calls to make that part explicitly purely voluntary and non directed in [...]
August 24th, 2009 | 2:42 pm
Cindy Sue:
As the verbiage cited in the piece states, Compassion & Choices advocated strongly for the provision to be included in the overall health care reform package. Nowhere do we take claim for the drafting/writing of this provision.
Again, the writing of the provision was done by Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s (D-Oregon) office.
Carla Axtman
Online Community Builder
Compassion & Choices
compassionandchoices.org
August 24th, 2009 | 3:23 pm
Carla Axtman: No, you claimed to have “worked tirelessly with supportive members of congress,” to have the section put in the bill. That isn’t the same thing as merely supporting it. If that is overstated, please issue a formal correction on your Web site.
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