Murad (Jack) Kevorkian, MD

Ezekiel (Zeke) Emanuel, MD, PhD

These photos show two physicians who exemplify the rule that if you are seeking ethical guidance, the medical profession is not the place to look. The first is Jack Kevorkian, MD, practitioner of euthanasia and forerunner of the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The second is Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, advocate of euthanasia, inventor of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, and major architect of ObamaCare.

Dr. Emanuel recently threw off all pretense. He now states plainly that we all should die at age 75, and should have active medical treatment stopped – no matter how vigorous we are, and no matter what we or our family and friends want. The money and facilities no longer used for the elderly will be shifted to the young.

Unstated is the fact that with declining birth rates, an increasing number of the young will be immigrants, legal and illegal. This, of course, doesn’t bother Emanuel. He, like his patron President Obama, sees no obligation for our government to care for American citizens first. That might be seen as “exceptionalism,” but it is merely an example of “charity begins at home.” Emanuel and those like him have empathy in the shape of a doughnut, with a hole at its center. They have empathy for “all the peoples of the Earth,” but not Americans. They have high regard for “all humanity,” but not their own elderly or disabled.

If Emanuel and those like him fear being disabled, that is their problem. It does not give them the right to kill us if we become disabled or elderly. Their fear does not justify a national program. It is not James Bond’s double-zero license to eliminate whoever gets in their way.

Revealingly, Emanuel’s own father is age 87. That is, according to the son, the father has already lived 12 years too long. (Happy birthday, Dad!) It never ceases to amaze me that supposedly intelligent people often have little self-awareness or insight. (Do you suppose that Zeke might have a daddy problem? Really?)

You may object that is unfair to compare Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Rahm, advisor to President Obama, and a chief author of ObamaCare, to Jack Kevorkian, oddball killer of at least 47 “patients” and convicted murderer.

I agree that it is unfair – to Kevorkian:

● Kevorkian came when called. Emanuel’s thugs will arrive uninvited.

● Kevorkian came when you decided you’d be better off dead. Emanuel’s bureaucrats will tell you you’d be better off dead.

● Kevorkian did the dirty work himself – and took the blame. The ObamaCare bureaucrats will issue regulations that limit what doctors and hospitals can do – and the doctors and hospitals will be blamed by patients and their families for denying care.

● Kevorkian had an MD. Emanuel has an MD and a PhD. (But so did Mengele.)

● Kevorkian was frank about what he was; Emanuel poses as an ethical guru.

● Kevorkian accepted punishment. Emanuel fobs off responsibility onto others.

● Kevorkian killed 47. Emanuel wants to kill many thousands, perhaps millions.

● Kevorkian was a private citizen. The ObamaCare bureaucrats will be armed with the full power of the federal government.

● Kevorkian eventually was sent to prison by a judge and jury for breaking the law. The ObamaCare bureaucrats are in effect above the law. It will be nearly impossible to remove or overrule them, and they are not subject to judicial review. Courts can review actions of the president or Congress, but not actions of this board. (Say what?)

● Kevorkian was straightforward – he announced he was there to help you die. The ObamaCare bureaucrats wrap themselves in the mantle of “caring” and “fairness.”

● Kevorkian looked like what he was – a death-obsessed crank with a creepy smile and weird eyes. The ObamaCare bureaucrats will hide behind Obama’s friendly smile and Emanuel’s scholarly face. You’ll never see them, but they’ll be there, right over your shoulder, waiting for you to become disabled or hit the age limit.

● Kevorkian was a piker, killing “patients” one by one. The ObamaCare bureaucrats will kill thousands with a keystroke, and then adjourn to the executive dining room for lunch.

● Kevorkian was efficient – when he arrived, you died. The ObamaCare bureaucrats will be as inefficient as most federal bureaucrats. Perhaps, like many welfare programs, ObamaCare is not intended to succeed but to fail. Then even more intrusive programs can be introduced. Here this means “single payer” – entirely government-run health care, which Obama declared he favors. Leftism isn’t a goal that can be reached – it’s a never-ending process of bigger and bigger government, until freedom is just a vague memory, and citizens are reduced to subjects.

● Kevorkian had an MD, though he was trained as a pathologist and had no experience with living patients. The ObamaCare bureaucrats are not required to have any training or experience in health care. (Have a nice day.)

● Kevorkian was a physician. But in all its 2400 pages, ObamaCare provides only for hiring more bureaucrats and IRS agents – and not one penny to train more doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants, paramedics, technicians, or any other health-care personnel. In addition, many physicians plan to leave practice when ObamaCare takes effect.

Of course, to save even more money, everyone should die at 65, soon after they start receiving Social Security and Medicare. Bureaucrats call it “cost-effectiveness” and “quality of life” assessment. As expected, the quality of your life will be assessed not by you or your loved ones, but by unelected bureaucrats who never laid eyes on you – and have no desire to do so. This will be the solution to the Social Security and Medicare problem – the Final Solution.

Sarah Palin and others were ridiculed as ignorant fools for warning about “death panels.” But what would you call a 15-member commission that decides what treatments can – and cannot – be given to all ObamaCare patients, not just Medicare patients? What would you call a commission whose members cannot be removed or overridden, except with great difficulty?
You don’t like the term “death panels”? Fine. Call them “Kevorkian’s Klones,” or “Bean-counting Bureaucratic Bullies,” or “Scrooge’s Stooges,” or whatever you like. It’s not the name that’s frightening – it’s the unrestrained power of life and death over 318 million Americans that should scare you.

More patients + fewer doctors = rationing. This is the intended result. Again, the doctors and hospitals, not the government, will be blamed for the shortages and the long delays. Then people will call for even more government regulations to solve the problem that government created in the first place. And so it goes in the downward spiral called Big Government.

Its proponents thought ObamaCare would be Medicare for everyone. But it is more likely that ObamaCare will turn out to be Veterans Affairs health care for everyone. Like most socialist programs, it will achieve “equality” not by raising the floor, but by lowering the ceiling. And when the ceiling gets low enough, we’ll all be forced to our knees.

Disability Activists

So I must apologize to the late Dr. Kevorkian for associating him with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. Kevorkian doesn’t look so bad by comparison. And I also apologize for Dr. Emanuel’s appallingly inappropriate last name, which means “God is with us.”

Ezekiel Emanuel has spent his career in universities and the federal bureaucracy. So he may have gained the impression that people are like sheep, and can be led meekly to the slaughter. He should spend some time in Middle America, where people bear no resemblance whatever to sheep.

To Ezekiel Emanuel and to anyone else who wants me to give up my life when it suits them, I say, with Leonidas, come and take it.

Contact: dstol@prodigy.net. You are welcome to publish or post these articles, provided that you cite the author and website.
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