American Medical Establishment Meeting With Government Agencies to Determine who Gets to Live and Die in National Health Emergency

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an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.

The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The government, or the remains of it after 28 years of right wing extremists dismantling every regulatory agency while staffing anything left with corporate insiders, making decisions about who lives and dies is nothing short of an abomination and is almost certainly illegal

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"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.

And it almost certainly will given the current state of decay in every level of American life.

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Those out of luck are the people at high risk of death and a slim chance of long-term survival. But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:

_People older than 85.

_Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

_Severely burned patients older than 60.

_Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.

_Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

So, all those who could live with medical care, but in the new fascist America concerned first and foremost with corporate profit, they can just fuck off and die.

Dr. Kevin Yeskey, director of the preparedness and emergency operations office at the Department of Health and Human Services, was on the task force. He said the report would be among many the agency reviews as part of preparedness efforts.

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said. While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, "there are some real ethical concerns here."

Because the War on the Poor is real while the war on terror is a bunch of phony propaganda used to manipulate the public into supporting politicians who advance policies like the ones specified above. With the money George "The Great Chimperor" Bush has burned up in Iraq America could afford to give health care to everyone in all manner of situations.

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