Veterans Administration Already Promotes Life Not worth Living

August 22, 2009 (LPAC)—While the Obama Administration and the Democratic misleadership of Nancy Pelosi are promoting a T-4 IMAC dead panel in their current "health-care" bill, the Obama Administration has already approved a 52-page end-of-life planning document entitled "Your Life, Your Choices" in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

According to Jim Towey in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Aug. 19 entitled "The Death Book for Veterans," this document argues that depression, disability, and being a financial burden could constitute "Lebensunwertes Leben" (Life Unworthy of Life). According to Towey, last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997, and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under Presidnet Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

The primary author of the document is Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court, and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

The document suggests that both family finances and depression could constitute a life unworthy of life. It invites veterans to define even non-terminal conditions (such as being in a wheelchair or having depression) as "Lebensunwertes Leben." Veterans are asked if the following conditions would make life not worth living: I can no longer walk but get around in a wheelchair; I can no longer contribute to my family's well-being; I am a severe financial burden on my family; and I cannot seem to shake the blues.

Only one organization is listed in the new version of this document as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now known as "Compassion and Choices").

A July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to "Your Life, Your Choices."