Newsweek Features "The Case for Killing Granny"

September 15, 2009 (LPAC)—This is no joke. Newsweek (owned by the Washington Post) lets it all hang out on this one, attacking the very idea of using medical science to extend life. "Until Americans learn to contemplate death as more than a scientific challenge to be overcome," the Newsweek cover feature article argues, "our health-care system will remain unfixable."

"The idea that we might ration health care to seniors (or anyone else) is political anathema," writes Newsweek. Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas. "Politicians do not dare breathe the R word, lest they be accused—however wrongly—of trying to pull the plug on Grandma. But the need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate. Everyone sees it but no one wants to talk about it."

Thomas then does proceed to talk about it—and promote it—at great length, contending that there is no way we can get control of costs unless we find a way "to stop overtreating patients." He launches into a long defense of the Dartmouth lies, and even gets around to discussing setting up a British-model NICE-type panel to decide what (that is, who) gets cut. Arguing that our present system is unsustainable, Thomas writes that eventually, economic reality may force us to adopt a system like Britain or Canada.

While claiming that talk of "death panels" is demagogy, Thomas proves that end-of-life counselling does hasten death. "A study by the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that such conversations between doctors and patients can decrease costs by about 35 percent—while improving quality of life at the end."

"Our medical system does everything it can to encourage hope," Thomas complains. "And American health care has been near miraculous—the envy of the world—in its capacity to develop new lifesaving and life-enhancing treatments. But death can be delayed only so long...."