Academic

THEY?RE NOT ?DEATH PANELS.? THEY?RE ?PATRIOTIC DUTY PANELS.? One fashionable notion among some ?

By Glenn Reynolds

THEY’RE NOT “DEATH PANELS.” THEY’RE “PATRIOTIC DUTY PANELS.”

One fashionable notion among some of the intelligentsia is that old people have “a duty to die,” rather than become a burden to others.

This is more than just an idea discussed around a seminar table. Already Britain’s government-run medical system is restricting what medications or treatments it will authorize for the elderly. It seems almost certain that similar attempts to contain runaway costs will lead to similar policies when US medical care is taken over by the government.

Make no mistake: Letting old people die is a lot cheaper than spending the kind of money required to keep them alive and well. If a government-run medical system is going to save any serious amount of money, it is almost certain to do so by sacrificing the elderly.

There was a time when some desperately poor societies had to abandon old people to their fate, because there was just not enough margin for everyone to survive. Sometimes the elderly would simply go off to face their fate alone.

But is that where we are today?

Another reason for a carbon tax — if global warming strikes, we won’t be able to put them out to sea on an ice floe! It all makes sense now . . . .

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 15, 2010 (boomark / email).