Repubs use shotgun approach to kill health reform

Taking a page from Dick Cheney's hunting book -- shooting friends in the face with a shotgun on a bird hunt -- the Republicans can't seem to figure out who are their friends and who are the birds they're trying to shoot.

One of their loudest rants is the wild fantasy of a "Death Panel." Last week, Sarah Palin cited this, calling it "downright evil" that someday her Downs baby might have to go before "Obama's Death Panel," to decide whether his level of productivity makes him worthy of health care.

That can only be a psychotic paranoid reaction or a willful distortion. Probably it's a willful distortion designed to play into the paranoia of the fringe-right.

What this section of the bill actually does is provide for funds to be used for consultation about medical advanced care planning -- the kind that all hospitals already urge patients to have. It's called a living will, and it gives the patient the right to say whether he wants to be resuscitated if there's no chance for recovery, or about when to stop treatment in a terminally ill patient that is only artificially being kept alive.

But this is completely voluntary. It has nothing to do with euthanasia or rationing of treatment. The very purpose is to give the patient the right to say for himself -- in advance -- rather than having family or doctors who don't know what they patient would have wanted. And it would have prevented the debacle of Terry Shiavo, which the Republicans didn't handle very well.

And here's the irony that just was made known today:

This section of the bill was authored by a Republican,
Right to Life Senator from Georgia,

Johnny Isakson.

Medical advance planning has been an interest of his for years; he has co-sponsored two bills previously on the subject.

Isn't it about time for him to step up to the plate and set his fellow Republicans straight? His would be the most effective voice to counter the wild distortions?

Ralph