Carnivorousness

If you come in my cage I'll eat you too!

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Death Panels and fatty fatty 2x4's

Far left San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll went way out on Hitler's limb in his most recent column. In it he makes many controversial statements, but he indirectly defends a group of New Orleans medical staff who may have chosen to euthanize patients after hurricane Katrina.

"There was an additional problem - some of the remaining critically ill patients were obese, sometimes morbidly so. Evacuation involved maneuvering a patient down six flights of stairs, through a hole that had been hastily cut through a wall to the parking garage, then up two flights of very steep metal steps to the helipad. Some doctors were not even sure it could be done.

Here's another uncomfortable fact: Doctors often do not much care for people who do not take care of themselves. They understand, of course, but 30 years of unheeded advice takes its toll on the empathy impulses. How could it not? There was no suggestion in the article that this was a factor in any of the decisions; this is merely speculation on my part. Still.

The doctors were already administering morphine to manage pain and relieve the patients' anxiety. At a certain point, it seems pretty clear, a decision was made to give certain patients an increased dose of morphine plus a benzodiazepine sedative. Pou denies that euthanasia was her goal; she was just trying to get them through what was sure to be "another night of hell."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/#ixzz0Q4aiqTU6

He makes a few projections, I think. Liberals often despise people who "don't take care of themselves." Well, they hate obese white people who reside in the midwest, or any trailer park in the US. They do, however, get mad when conservatives, "despise people who don't take care of themselves."

The decision to euthanize such patients, would not be defended by any serious right-wing columist.

2 Comments:

At 7:39 PM , Blogger ricpic said...

You have to ask yourself: is a welfare queen a human being?

 
At 12:10 AM , Blogger Donkeyhue said...

I didnt even read this, just stopping by to say hi. Good to see youre kicking.

 

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