GRAND FORKS - On Tuesday, the Herald published an editorial urging a No vote on Measure 1 (“Measure 1: No on ‘personhood amendment,’” Page A4).
Because the editorial was written by The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, an entity in virtual lockstep with the liberal agenda (pro-abortion crowd), the editorial came as no surprise. What was surprising, however, is the argument made that Measure 1 would result in government intrusion in our lives in the same way Obamacare has intruded.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Although it wasn’t widely reported in the mainstream news media, recently Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the chief architects of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and brother to President Barack Obama’s former chief-of-staff (and current mayor of Chicago) Rahm Emanuel, published an opinion piece in The Atlantic titled, “Why I hope to die at 75.”
Emanuel argues that people over age 75 are a drain on society, and it would serve the common good if they would just die sooner rather than later. While he is clear that he is not advocating for euthanasia or assisted suicide, what he is doing is laying the groundwork for something much more insidious: age-based rationing of health care.
It must be understood that Emanuel is a utilitarianist. He believes the value of a person lies in his or her contribution to the economic structure of a society. Non-contributors are worth less than those who are economically productive and are therefore entitled to less of the community resources, including health care.
What people such as Emanuel sadly do not appreciate or understand is the tremendous value of our aged population that has nothing at all to do with economic value and productivity. I simply can’t imagine not knowing and having interacted with my grandparents, if they had been rationed health care and left to die when they reached some arbitrary and predetermined age.
And I am witnessing first-hand the tremendous benefit my grandchildren are receiving by knowing, loving and being loved not only by their grandparents, but also by their great-grandparents, most of whom are still living thanks to the wonders of modern medicine.
Under Emanuel’s plan - thinking shared by many who created Obamacare - my grandchildren would not even know their great-grandparents.
I am convinced that as we move deeper into government control of our health care, absent constitutional protections such as Measure 1 would bring, we are rapidly approaching the time when at some arbitrary age (whether it be 75 or some other age), virtually all health care will be denied, other than palliative care.
For example, if your hip is broken and needs to be replaced, and you are over the predetermined age, you will just be put in a wheelchair, given pain medication and allowed to die. That is just wrong.
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Measure 1, if passed, will protect us from such an arbitrary result. It does that by mandating that human life at all stages of development must be respected and protected.
It will leave with each of us - and not the government - the right to determine if and to what extent we wish to take advantage of health care to keep us alive as a blessing in our golden years for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Please join me in protecting our individual civil liberties by voting yes on Measure 1.
Fischer is an attorney in private practice in Grand Forks.
