Bishop: Obama plan deadly for those at beginning, end of life

By Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer

   The present health plans being discussed in Congress, strongly supported by President Obama, would provide billions of taxpayers’ monies to perform abortions, support present abortion centers and build many new ones. These plans also contain an undercover of attack on the elderly and the sick. A critical issue in the plan is a provision that calls for end-of-life counseling of senior citizens every five years. This portion of the plan seems to be designed to encourage euthanasia, as it could easily create a platform for assisted suicide for the elderly, infirmed and disabled at times when they are most vulnerable. This provision could very easily start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.
   A critical element to be examined carefully in the health plan is the “Quality Adjusted Life Years”, where the value assigned to life varies with the health state of the person. This could easily mean that some people would not receive treatment if the calculated cost is not warranted by the benefits to their quality of life.
   In its present form, the Obama health plan is indeed deadly for the beginning and the end of human life, but in many ways is deadly for the lives who are in between the beginning and the end. There is concern that this plan would also affect, in a deadly way, many mentally ill and incapacitated persons, whose lives could be shortened because their lives are not considered to have value, and they are not considered to be productive people.
    The U.S. Catholic bishops have for years sought to expand healthcare for all people in the U.S.A., especially for the uninsured. The bishops believe that healthcare should be affordable and accessible to all, and no health plan should in any way endanger the life, born or unborn, and the dignity of the human person which needs to be respected at all stages of life. Bishop William Murphy, Chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, speaking for the bishops, stated: “Genuine health-care reform that protects the life and dignity of all is a moral imperative and a vital national obligation.” The bishop also repudiated attempts to compel us or others to pay for the destruction of human life, whether through government funding or mandatory coverage of abortion.