Ezekiel Emanuel — one of the architects of Obamacare — thinks that 75 years of life is enough and if people just dropped dead at 75, it would be good for society.
Zeke is back with a major article in The Atlantic, in which he provides a rationale for death at age 75. In his opinion, people older than 75 are annoying. They aren’t as productive as they used to be, don’t “contribute to work, society, the world.” They are more likely to be disabled, “a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived.” Plus, they are a pain in the ass: “they set expectations, render judgments, impose their opinions, interfere, and are generally a looming presence for even adult children.”
This reminds me of one the preachier episodes of Star Trek (featuring gay actor David Ogden Stiers doing his level best to appear sexually interested in Majel Barrett).
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Or maybe this would make it more interesting:
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The New York Times, March 29, 1984:
This was one of the earliest calls for “sanity” after Medicare was stymied by the costs and ethics of prolonging life as an income stream for the medical industry.
Gov. Lamm was quickly shouted down for his sentiments. The geriatrics industry pummeled him. No one could begin to agree on how to constitute the “death panels” who would “pull the plug” on meaningless medical intrusion to help keep the body alive.
Meanwhile, the reality of palliative care by Hospice has skyrocketed. People recognize that the pain, stress and deterioration due to terminal illness can be managed until death ends the life.
However, the British socialist health care has set age specific cut-offs on many organ transplants and some medical procedures. The “system” looks at, say, a 60 year old and says it will not spend the money to enhance the longevity of the patient. It will use the money on the care of younger people. Therefore, the system is bifurcated between health care for the younger crowd and death management for the older patients. Presumably, there is a productivity and economic benefit in the calculation.
The ethics involved in the “death panel” concept include hospitals managing profit centers, heirs with eyes on the inheritance, getting relied for a painful duty or obligation, saving Medicare money, convenience, containing a medical challenge, and much more.
Every person should look around and choose his five representatives to name to his own death panel. Then everyone should ask himself if he would be willing to serve on a death panel. Or, would the person prefer to have “professional” death panel people take the vote or, perhaps, permit a computer program to make the call?
Family can make some very selfish and silly choices. A friend directed her mother’s last days which included these steps: the lady of 97 had a hip replaced in her alzheimer’s world and infection ensued. The artificial hip was removed and not replaced. Then an amputation of the leg was necessitated. She was nursed through pneumonia to have a nasty bought of bed sores and shingles. As lung infections crept in, the daughter finally got the notion that perhaps her mother was really ready for nature to take its course.
Ezekial Emanuel is too clever by half in trying to flip off the last years of life. He is being a cold-hearted actuary. Medicare, after all, is a Utopian mare’s nest. Sooner or later, every life will be ended by some form cancer. Usually, organ failure speeds the process of body rot up and kills the host.
You can bet that Emanuel and the political class would be exempted from any such requirement; just like they exempted themselves from Obamacare.
Carrousel requires faith so that’s out.
Isaac Asimov warned us about this stupidity in several of his scifi stories that included “The Sixty” for social-control or population-control.
In the original book “Logan’s Run”, Carousel was at age-21.
Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse.”
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone who makes stupid statements like this was required to undergo lethal injection at the age they state? But be given a chance, right before that, to hear what they said, and respond to it.
ONLY those who say stuff like this, though.
Frankly, the duty to care for the elderly falls on the children, and I take care of my 92-year-old parents, and will continue to do so. They cared for me when I was young. It is the only right thing to do.
To hear someone says, “…when grow so old that their families can no longer care for them…” I’m sorry, too many “families” give up too easily. Oh, this is a financial burden…oh, it takes so much time… And invariably, these “families” have no children of their own, and have spent their lives in self-indulgency.
THIS is the result of the breakdown of the family as well.
Oh really? If Emanuel had his way the world would never have known Grandma Moses who began her artistic career at 75 years of age. And Colonel Harland Sanders, broke at 65, with his first social security check got into his car and travel the country trying to sell a franchise to his secret receipe for chicken. It took three months for his first sale, and then his business took off. At 75 he sold the business but remained as a spokesman for KFC, in television commercials and personal appearances.
BTW, isn’t his brother getting up there in years. “Sorry bro, but you gotta go.”
Considering current trends, I’ll still be working until 75. I want to enjoy at least a couple of years of retirement.
While I might not want to get to be as old as my great grandmother, one grandfather was still out hunting in his high 80s with the help of an ATV four wheeler to carry deer.
The point of O-Hole care was to take money from Asians and whites that don’t have much in the way of healthcare costs before 60 and transfer the money to those with lots of problems. In Europe and Asian there are areas with significant numbers of people that live over 90yo,even back through time with less available health tech.
Before O-Hole care any Asian or white without a significant family history would be better off buying catastrophic coverage until they had kids or hit 50.
Ha My answer to global warming nuttts, is “okay if u believe it, go ahead START on your own”. Same with these boobs. Go ahead, START, you and all your friends…75 end it. Show you ‘ve got a pair.
Ezekiel Emanuel isn’t 75 yet I find him quite annoying. How many people does it take to agree before he’s required to check out as a burden?
There certainly does need to be some frank talk about the cost versus benefit numbers in some cases. But age, by itself, is irrelevant. If we want to be all utilitarian about it, Warren Buffett, age 84, is certainly more productive than, say, some of the folks present at the NY
communistclimate walk.