Why I haven’t seen this video before, and why it has not gone viral, is beyond me. Listening to this speech, I feel as relieved as I did listening to Reagan in the late 1970s explaining calmly and clearly to the American people how we were being hoodwinked by Continue reading
Author Archives: Ione Whitlock
A step beyond food fascism
Are “culture of health” and “culture of death” mutually exclusive? Ask most refugees from 1930s socialist Europe, and my guess is their answer will not only be “no,” but more likely “the former ushers in the latter.” That is to say, it is difficult to imagine a culture that assigns a value on human beings based upon their health, without questioning what that culture does to human beings who are judged to be “not healthy.” Continue reading
Religion in a Post-Constitutional America
As one of my favorite authors has noted, we are in a post-Constitutional America. One example is the much-discussed and controversial Proposed Rule from CMS to incentivize end-of-life conversations.
Here’s another pathetic example. Continue reading
“Death Facilitators Being Sneaked in over Labor Day Weekend”
Once again the administration is trying to push through by fiat — with a few new twists — what Congress and the American public have already rejected.
Not only is the government offering an incentive to physicians (and presumably the hospitals and clinics and nursing homes that hire them) to have “end-of-life” conversations with their sickest patients, but there is question as to which other “qualified professionals” might be be paid to introduce end-of-life discussions to patients. Continue reading
Bernard Shaw — Poster boy for shared decision-making?
Bernard Shaw, euthanasia and death panel advocate: “You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence?”
How perfect. Bernard Shaw as the spokesman for decision aids for terminally ill patients.
I’m sure the irony was lost on the author of “The Judges Have Spoken: Decision Aid Upgrade Design Challenge Winners Announced” as she opened her story with a quotation from Shaw.
The article announced the winners of a contest sponsored by California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) to develop new tools to coach cancer patients and their families in treatment decisions. Not surprisingly, the shared decision-making tool that won first prize from CHCF coaches the patient toward palliative care. Continue reading