But Will the Health Care Be Healthy?

A shocking story came out of England the other day, when a mother delivered her recently paralyzed 23-year-old son to a Swiss euthanasia center.

Then the American Catholic blog in "The Pro-Life Movement on the Left" brought up an interesting point about universal health care under an Obama administration.

But what about the fact that Barack Obama said that his worse choice in his senatorial career was his vote to save Terry Schiavo (he doesn’t oppose euthanasia) and his expression at the “Compassion Forum” that he thinks people should have the choice to end their lives and their suffering if they choose to (physician-assisted suicide)?

To provide euthanasia in place of health care is not a stretch in this country. We have a model in Oregon. There one in four assisted suicide patients had clinical depression, according to a British Medical Journal study; their treatment was lethal. And here's what the Oregon Health Plan prescribed for a cancer patient:

In May 2008, 64-year-old retired school bus driver Barbara Wagner received bad news from her doctor. She found out that her cancer, which had been in remission for two years, had returned. Then, she got some good news. Her doctor gave her a prescription that would likely slow the cancer's growth and extend her life. She was relieved by the news and also by the fact that she had health care coverage through the Oregon Health Plan.

It didn't take long for her hopes to be dashed.

Barbara Wagner was notified by letter that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn't cover her prescription. But the letter didn't leave it at that. It also notified her that, although it wouldn't cover her prescription, it would cover assisted suicide.

This underscores the need to build social structures that are founded on a true conception for the human person who has an incalculable value beyond such attributes as health, intellect, class.