|
|
 |
|
The
views expressed
on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent the views of County News Online
|
 |
Obamacare and
the Culture of Death
By Kate Burch
A recently-developed, highly accurate, blood test that screens for the
presence of Down syndrome in the fetus is becoming more widely
used. It has great potential for good, in that it can help women
avoid more invasive and dangerous procedures such as amniocentesis and
chorionic villus sampling when there are risk factors for Down syndrome
present. It is also a good thing for parents of a child that will
be born with disabilities to have foreknowledge, as that is useful for
their planning. Some advocates are concerned that a positive
result may lead some couples to terminate a pregnancy, even if the
initial results are not confirmed by further testing, and without
becoming educated about how individuals with Down syndrome are living
longer, happier, healthier, and more productive lives these days. There
is public debate and political activity related to this issue.
The Ohio General Assembly is considering legislation, HB 135, passed by
the House, that specifically outlaws terminating a pregnancy in
response to a diagnosis of Down syndrome. North Dakota now has a
broader law forbidding abortion for the purpose of eliminating a child
with genetic defects. Such law is not really enforceable, as
abortion clinics do not question a woman who seeks an abortion about
her reason for wanting it. However, it does send a message.
My big concern about the issue of prenatal testing in the Obamacare
world, is that it will be made mandatory, and that fetal test results
that reveal likelihood of “defects” will result in a recommendation
that the pregnancy be terminated and even to refusal of coverage for
continued prenatal and maternity care.
“Can’t happen!” you say? Well, look at the contraception
mandate, and the fact that businesses are being shut down and
pharmacists, for example, are losing their jobs for following the
dictates of conscience and refusing to play along and dispense
abortifacients. A most egregious example, to be sure, is the
government persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor (they are not
even the Big Sisters, as Charles Krauthammer so trenchantly pointed
out) for their principled refusal to cover contraception for employees
of their society.
Big-government cheerleaders and apologists on the Left will pooh-pooh
such concerns, as they have the concerns about rationing of health care
services for seniors under this regime. The Left tars as
“crazies” people who warn that older citizens will be told, as Obama
said in his first presidential campaign, to “just take a pill” rather
than get that cardiac pacemaker or treatment for their cancer. A
little digging, and a little analytical thought quickly reveals how the
Obama health care law is undeniably crafted to limit what insurance
companies can do to keep up with medical inflation; what individuals
can do to use their own money to care for themselves and their
families; and what health care professionals can do to save lives. It
already happens in England and Canada that the elderly are denied care
because a faceless bureaucrat is in charge of the payment, and it is
coming here, unless we can achieve a change in leadership. Make
no mistake. Obamacare seeks to bring about the desired world of
those who favor the rule of faceless, powerless masses by a privileged
elite; those who have no respect for an individual’s life or an
individual’s rights of freedom and self-determination; those who think
they are so smart that they have the right to herd us like sheep and
pen us up in ticky-tacky city apartments bordered by bicycle paths
(with no air conditioning, to boot!); those who would call an unborn
child a “blob” and condone his or her murder so that society might not
be inconvenienced; those who would say that the elderly must be
abandoned to die so that health care dollars will be available for the
young and the beautiful.
|
|
|
|
