“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” -Sarah Palin, referring to the discretionary option to speak to a representative about a living will in a completely unresolved, hypothetical health bill

I would welcome a government-run “death panel” to our current system. What they are worried about is hospitals putting a price on life based on how much you are worth to society, which seems a lot better than our current system of putting a price on life based on how much money you have. Even fascist dystopias didn’t have doctors overprescribing downers and performing unnecessary surgeries on rich people. I once knew a woman who claimed to have been denied an organ for being rude to the administrator. I think if it came to basing life or death on my resume or my congeniality, I’d probably pick the former.

“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.” – Investors Business Daily, in an editorial.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/08/10/it-doesnt-take-stephen-hawking-to-figure-this-one-out/

Investors Business Daily has corrected its editorial, removing all mention of Stephen Hawking. And Hawking himself has responded, telling the UK’s Guardian:

“I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.”