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Cornyn: Build "firewall" to keep government out of end-of-life decisions
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
08/11/09 11:43 AM EDT
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn just finished a conference call with reporters on the state of the health care battle. He was asked about the fears created by allegations of so-called "death panels" in the Democratic proposals. Calling such fears an "exaggeration" of what's in the plans, Cornyn nevertheless said that legislative provisions placing end-of-life counseling in the context of cost-cutting "create the specter" of government involvement in deeply personal decision-making. "We've got to have a firewall between private decision-making and government decision-making when it comes to end-of-life decisions," Cornyn said. From the conference call:
QUESTION: Do you think [talk of "death panels"] is an accurate description of what's in the Democratic plans?
CORNYN: I think it's probably an exaggeration of what is actually in the plans, but there is no doubt that there is an emphasis on consulting with family members about end-of-life decisions and health care decisions because of the stated concerns about how much money is spent at that stage of life and whether money could actually be saved by encouraging people to have living wills and medical directives, as the president has discussed.
I think the most important thing here is that those decisions must be left in the hands of the family and individuals most directly affected. I think what scares people and what creates the specter of end-of-life panels or "death panels" is the idea that government would somehow be involved in those decisions. I think we've got to have a firewall between private decision-making and government decision-making when it comes to end-of-life decisions, because I think it's easy for all of us to see how this could, even despite the best of intentions, degenerate into one where government ultimately made decisions based on cost and the value of one's life, rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of the family
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