Well, the leftosphere is having great fun with whatever Sarah Palin wrote on Facebook about the new health bill's "death panels", but "IV," the mechanism for end-of-life counseling
[p.425]
"(IV) is guided by a coalition of stakeholders includes representatives from emergency medical services, emergency department physicians or nurses, state long-term care association, state medical association, state surveyors, agency responsible for senior services, state department of health, state hospital association, home health association, state bar association, and state hospice association."
...may not be a "death panel," but how such bureaucracies become "stakeholders" in another individual's life must have been an argument I missed.
The whole section is about DNRs and the like, employing the euphemism of "orders." Read it for yourself.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2009/07/27/health-care-bill-page-425-the-truth.htm
Whether or not the term "death panels" strictly applies is not the heart of the matter. There is indeed something more going on here than Sarah Palin, and it's disingenuous to pretend there's not. These are bureaucratic panels advising on matters of life and death.
Bureaucracies are not "stakeholders" in human lives. At least not yet. But if and when they do become "stakeholders" in my life [and death], I shall find no reason to trust their advice.
In fact, any sane person would shun it.
