In his own words: Obama’s rationer-in-chief

Another article is addressing the age old question being raised by the underlying philosophy of ObamaCare: Are we sovereign individuals or drones in a teeming anthill of humanity?

Betsy McCaughey, chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and former New York lieutenant governor, writes on the op-ed page of Thursday’s Wall Street Journal about the opinions of Obama adviser Ezekiel Emanuel under the headline: "Obama's Health Rationer-in-Chief: White House health-care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel blames the Hippocratic Oath for the 'overuse' of medical care."

She uses extensive quotes from Emanuel’s writings to unravel a rather clear picture of the future of heath care under the likes of him.

McCaughey writes: “In the Lancet, Jan. 31, 2009, Dr. Emanuel and co-authors presented a ‘complete lives system’ for the allocation of very scarce resources, such as kidneys, vaccines, dialysis machines, intensive care beds, and others. ‘One maximizing strategy involves saving the most individual lives, and it has motivated policies on allocation of influenza vaccines and responses to bioterrorism. . . . Other things being equal, we should always save five lives rather than one.

"’However, other things are rarely equal — whether to save one 20-year-old, who might live another 60 years, if saved, or three 70-year-olds, who could only live for another 10 years each — is unclear. When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged roughly 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.’”

She also describes Emanuel’s Chicago-style effort to achieve this health care “reform,” again in his own words, this time from a blog posting: "Every favor to a constituency should be linked to support for the health-care reform agenda. If the automakers want a bailout, then they and their suppliers have to agree to support and lobby for the administration's health-reform effort."