Pro-life video of the day: Doctors offer woman death, not medicine
by Hans Johnson
Massachusetts Against Doctor Prescribed Suicide – No On 2 warns that the so-called “Death With Dignity Initiative” to be voted on this November 6th does not safeguard against cases such as that of Barbara Gordon, who was offered an assisted suicide drug instead of actual medical treatment.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UduKJhIDcEI[/youtube]You can see a report of the Oregon case here, and a Fox News follow-up here.
Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.
[HT: Jasper]
Sep.27, 2012 12:00 pm |
Video of the day |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
It’s sad (and scary!) to realize that we live in a world, surrounded by people who want us DEAD. If they can’t “get you” in your mother’s womb, they lie in wait until you get sick, then deny you treatment. Then there are the terrorists who want us all dead…then there are the killers walking the streets…the list seems to go on and on.
Pray to end this “culture of death”.
Having attended the funerals of too many suicide victims already, I can say there is no such thing as ‘death with dignity.’ When a person is physically ill, sometimes they can also become depressed. That doesn’t make suicide alright. We need better forms of compassion in our culture. Killing people at either stage of life (beginning or older) is NOT how one takes care of patients.
When the body dies, there is no dignity in that. Honestly, it’s the same undignified event whether it’s deliberate, accidental, or illness-related (doctors, nurses, you know what I’m talking about). And, let’s talk about the family: it is the most heartwrenching experience to try and offer comfort to those who are emotionally devastated by the deliberate and preventable deaths of their loved ones. Often, those left behind never get over the loss.
I think that when we as a society heal enough to stop seeing babies as disposable property, we will also see our infirm and elderly with more humanity. However, it pains me personally to have to fight this battle on two fronts. Those of us who work with or volunteer with the infirm and elderly know too well how emotionally vulnerable they are and how much pressure impatient and self-centered relatives can exert upon them and their decisions.
All this does not even address the problem of a patient unwilling to give up their fight to survive, as in this video!!!! Some of my folks I work with have a very limited amount of mobility and perhaps some other people think that because limitations frighten them, that their older relatives ‘must not want to live that way.’ Bull-oney! Many elderly, even those with diminished mental capacity, still want to wake up every day that they can! Don’t assume that they lose their instinct to survive just because their aging process frightens YOU.
Nothing good can from doctors acting as dealers of death instead of healers.
Hans, it really disappoints me that you would stoop so low as to use the desperate case of Barbara Wagner as a means to advance your “death panel” propaganda.
That’s low. Really low.
Low? Think how she felt!
Low? Think how she felt!
I know how she felt.
“I know how she felt.”
How? Do you happen to be a mind reader?
How? Do you happen to be a mind reader?
I’m dying from the same disease that killed her: metastasized non small cell lung cancer.
Your indictment of the Oregon Health Plan was completely unfair. They provided Barbara Wagner with treatment for over 10 years. Statistically, she should have only lasted 1 year at most. One insensitively written letter touched off a fire storm and you people jumped on it to indict them for having “death panels.”
You should be ashamed.
The OHP offered Barbara Wagner treatment options, but they didn’t include Tarceva which, at that time, only offered 4 months of additional survival time over PLACEBO (sugar pills).
She and her oncologist probably asked for Tarceva because she couldn’t stomach the idea of another round of conventional chemotherapy.
mp:
I am truly sorry to hear about your condition. But propaganda? If you want to talk about “low” and “propaganda” just look at the lies and prevarications spewed forth daily by everyone in the pro-death culture of abortion and euthanasia.
We here on this site are the anti-propagandists and we stand on the side of life and truth. We stand against the propaganda that has lad to 55 million unborn children put to death and dismissed as non-human. And we stand against the culture of death attempt to enshrine virtue around euthanasia.
“I’m dying from the same disease that killed her: metastasized non small cell lung cancer.”
I’m really sorry to hear that. I had no idea and would not have made the comment I did if I knew. Again I am very sorry for saying that.
“Pro-death?” “Enshrine virtue around euthenasia?”
Pray to your God that you never get it and that it never infiltrates your bones.
They can’t get enough morphine into you to stop the pain.
If you’re lucky, you’ll be in a coma by then. If you’re not, you’ll be begging for a gun to blast your own head off.
Get real.
mp, your condition does not justify dealing out death to others. I would not characterize the government offering to kill you rather than provide a requested treatment as “insensitive.” Clearly Barbara Wagner was upset about it and you do not speak for her.
It’s my understanding that firearms are legal and readily available, if that is your chosen course of action, mp.
This woman chose to live and wanted treatment in order to do so. They wrote her the medical equivalent of a shotgun prescription.
I’m willing to respect your choice, mp. Why won’t you respect hers, and stop dismissing her denied request as “propaganda”?
The title of this little hatchet job is “Doctors Offer Woman Death, Not Medicine.”
That is a LIE. The Oregon Health Plan paid for Barbara Wagner’s treatment for 10 years. They didn’t deny her THERAPY MEDICINE, they denied her request for TARCEVA which, according to Genentech’s own literature at the time, added only 4 MONTHS to her expected survival.
The Health Plan’s rule is 5/5, meaning that a therapy will be approved if it meets a minimum expected survival rate of 5% over 5 years.
Tarceva didn’t meet that requirement. Other, more conventional, therapies did meet the requirement.
Hi mp,
got a favor to ask of YOU! I am considered severely disabled. This disease process is called Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA) and is usually a fatal, genetic child’s disease. For me, death is a very slow-to- visit-friend(?), because I am now 65 and may become a decade older.
However, other insidious patterns of the dying process seem to follow me relentlessly. I am very much alone with this affliction, with none to share ‘this-experience’. Often this should be handled on a ‘personal level’ but because I also have a speech impairment (no phone), I fail to articulate my needs in this. Besides you learn very early-on that only a few face their own mortality and most folks will avoid it like crazy-experts.
Would you do me the privilege of journeying with me and sharing this time? My e-mail is: johnlmac8@hotmail.ca . Thanks.
Hi John,
We do share a common birth-name along with some profoundly wonderful people we call ‘saints’, yep Christian-saints. Even St. Francis’ first name was Giovanni! Try to understand that they too lived and died in some very harsh circumstances.
Faith does not make you a moron … wish life was that simple!
God bless!
Why the anger John? There is no dignity in death. Trying to save people from a final decision they can never take back is not being a busybody. Widespread acceptance of suicide endangers the lives of those with depression and leads to a society that accepts the disabled and the sick are better of dead. Suicide is a poor substitute for solving problems that cause people to think their lives have no value.
Chris, what John was saying is it’s not up to God.
Got it?
Also, I feel the same way. It’s up to me to decide when to go, not God.
Chris, his anger is probably because “prolife” people think it’s their way or the highway.
F them.
Big time.
Wow, 2012 has been quite a year already, and still a few months to go. We had the Dems deny God 3 times at their convention. The war-on-every-religion-except-Islam is in full swing. The war-on-women is being waged by the very people who accuse conservatives of waging it (using abortion to kill baby girls because they’re girls is pretty undeniable and bloody, but still they blame the conservatives who are pro-life!!).
And today we see comments by people who seem to believe in God but spit in his face. “Hey God, we see we have this nifty planet full of water and resources, and we have life and all that, but thanks but no thanks. We’d rather rot.”
Yeah. Well, I’m hoping that heaven is full of people. I’m disappointed that so many don’t want to get there. It’s going to be a lot of fun. But it won’t be the same without the rest of you. Oh well. You’ve been warned.
It is not up to the government to deny you a medication or a treatment that your doctor has recommended to save your life. I know that a health insurance company can do the same. What is 5%? To this woman, having the mere CHANCE to take this drug was her lifeline! When someone denies you treatment, you have no recourse. There is literally NO WAY that an individual can BUY some treatments or surgeries on his/her own. The expense is simply too great. Yet, what is the value of a person’s life? It can not be measured in dollar amounts because we are made in the image and likeness of God. I look at Baby Joseph, from Canada, who was denied treatment by the Canadian government, and Fr. Pavone stepped in with Priests for Life to save him. Baby Joseph lived for a year. Some would argue that a year and not being in a “normal state” is not worth such an expensive surgery. I would argue that it is because our value comes from God, not from the state. When an insurance company or a state has the right to give us inferior treatment, then we and our loved ones are powerless to fight against it. Miracles can and do happen, and sometimes when individuals are not expected to recover, they can and do make a remarkable recovery or be healed completely. With God anything is possible. Even if someone does NOT make a remarkable recovery or is healed, we need to advocate for the BEST possible and available treatment for EVERYONE. Everyone deserves to have specialists in their area of healthcare needs because otherwise they suffer from inferior treatment that can often cause MORE problems and MORE complications. This is why I am opposed to Obamacare; it would take away ALL of our freedom to obtain timely and effective treatment, and those who are considered “special needs” or terminal will receive a type of treatment that will be low-cost and ineffective at meeting their needs. In fact, euthanasia will be promoted under Obamacare as a legitimate option. I am sure that women over a certain age or with a certain number of children will eventually be denied routine OB treatment and a hospital birth, as happens in China, and then eventually, forced abortion and forced contraception and sterilization, as happens in China.