The Nation: Hit-Piece In Favor Of The Pro-Deathers

This is a long piece posing as balanced debate, but really is just another, albeit fairly sophisticated, pro-deather rant.

Anti-Choice at the End of Life

Last week a regulation to provide Medicare coverage for advance care planning counseling—that is, offer reimbursement to doctors for time spent talking to patients about end of life care—was abandoned … for the second time.

. . . A collective American reticence to frankly discuss death enables organizations like the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network and NRLC to misinform the public about existing government programs like hospice, Medicare, and other legal tools for the elderly, like advanced directives and medical proxies, which can provide more control over how they age and die.  Combined with a paternalistic medical profession that’s only recently begun training new doctors on how to talk to patients about how to plan their end of life care and a Republican party dependent on the support of anti-choice groups, “pro-life” groups have been able to fundamentally shape state and federal legislation. more