Sunday, December 05, 2004

The Ultimate Government Health "Care"

If you don't read Drudge or listen to Hugh Hewitt, you probably haven't heard about this yet. Doctors at Gronigen University Hospital in Amsterdam, the Netherlands have taken socialized medicine to its logical end, determining by committee who shall live and who shall die. This is becoming known as the Gronigen Protocol.

Children up twelve years old may be liable to euthanasia if the committee of “professionals” believe they are suffering unbearably. Of course, they are quick to point out that this would only apply to those suffering from terminal illness or major birth defects . . . for now.

Assisted death for adults suffering from terminal illness is one thing. You may not like it but every adult can be assumed to be capable of making their own decisions. But, in the case of children this becomes something terribly like the eugenics of the Third Reich

What is so frightening about this “protocol” is the fact that it is a purely logical outgrowth of socialized health care. Only so much is allocated for health care so why waste it on those who can never fully partake of life? You may not have to be Aryan but you certainly have to be all there or the committee of professionals may just decide not to waste any resources on you.

I have this vision of a Hillary-like “professional” sitting at a table of her peers while she tells, with deep reget no doubt, a young couple that their fetus or child is not qualified for futher health care benefits due to their poor prospects for a “quality” life and is being “put down” as she speaks. No second opinions, the bureaucrats have spoken.