Sarah Palin wants to know 'why the hatred?' Gosh, let me tell ya. You did your best folksy figurin' and decided that Obama and his Death Panels were coming for the disabled, and the elderly are next up.
But you didn't really think that, did you Sarah? Because if you did, I completely missed your outrage in 2003 when the Medicare Prescription Drug Modernization passed containing, well, end of life counseling. You know that was about taking care of seniors, right? And when I say taking care of them you know that I don't mean extinguishing them like your pal Glenn Beck calls on wing nuts like you to do to the 'cancerous progressives.' Yep, you know. But that's not what you say.
Sarah Palin, you know now just as you knew in 2003 that end of life care is actually the opportunity for all people who so CHOOSE to make decisions about what measures they want taken if they require life support. It is the opportunity to make a living will declaring what you want to be done in the event that you need life support and are unable to effectively declare your choice.
Let me explain that to ya real simple, Sarah; it is hard to talk when your heart stops beating or you stop breathing. That's why it's not even in the algorithm of CPR to shout at the patient in an effort to see if they want you to keep going. If you are already hospitalized you will automatically get the full force of CPR and Advanced Cardiac Life Support unless you have a living will.
It's not as much fun as it sounds, Sarah. I've done CPR on people so brittle that you hear their ribs cracking while you are doing it even if you are doing it well. People suffer on ventilators and feeding tubes with decubitus ulcers when their condition is such that they are existing only because medical technology has met with the health care worker's fear of lawsuits. Having been a nurse for many years, I've seen it, I've done it and it is too often prolonging the suffering of people who would have chosen differently if they had had good information.
It's 100% fine with me if someone has all the information about modern life-sustaining technology and the implications thereof prior, and then chosen for themselves to be kept alive by machines. I don't want to make that decision for anyone and neither do doctors or families or loved ones, but that's what happens, Sarah. Have you looked into faces of families in complete anguish because they have to make decisions about life support for their loved ones without really knowing what their loved ones would want? I have.
People are not educated enough about the implications of life-sustaining technology and health care workers' fear of lawsuits to understand that often the complications of both lead to outcomes of prolonged suffering that few would choose if they had the information. What right do you have to come between patients and their doctors? What right do you have to scare people away from planning with their doctors what they want done in the event they cannot speak for themselves--Especially by inciting fear in an already vulnerable population? Talk about hate, Sarah Palin. It's unbecoming of someone who would seek the office of Vice President of the United States.
Sarah Palin, you are well aware that living wills created between patients and their doctors can state that the they absolutely want their lives sustained at all costs and that will be done if that is their wish. Scaring people away from talking to their doctors about the reality of life support and making that decision with their doctor while they are able to speak for themselves is just wrong.
But that's just me. I'm rarely in favor of scaring vulnerable people needlessly and deceptively for political gain. It's a smack in the face to those who devote their lives caring for and trying to improve the quality of life for geriatric patients and are in the front lines enough to see that good care sometimes includes giving people enough respect to make the choice to die peacefully when the time comes, if that is their wish. There is no right or wrong choice but information is empowering and a reasonable expectation, the least we all deserve.
The death panel comment lowered the bar so much for legitimate debate that whenever I hear it, I still get upset. Mostly because I know it was a statement that caused real harm to countless people. Your remark wasn't thoughtless; it was something calculated and much more sinister. Shame on you. Nurses are tough people, Sarah. Don't tread on us.
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