First our babies and now our elderly? What is wrong with our government??
Oregon is moving forward with a bill that will allow healthcare providers to STARVE patients who are mentally ill and/or have dementia.
How on God's green earth could this possibly be humane??
SB494 passed out of the Senate Rules Committee with certain amendments. Colm Willis testified in front of the committee that the bill, even as amended, still gives healthcare providers the legal right to withhold food and water from these patients and against their will in some instances.
The current version of SB494 "could allow a healthcare representative to make a life-ending decision for a person not in an end of life condition without his or her explicit consent," said Willis.
According to Willis, some of the decisions healthcare providers include whether or not they give food and water to the mentally ill patients. He said, "A person may be incompetent to make a complex medical decision for themselves but still may be competent to decide whether or not they want to eat."
Willis added, "The effect of this bill would change the default rule, which is that except for in certain end-of-life situations, your healthcare representative cannot make life-ending decisions for you unless you say they can, to a new rule which would be that your healthcare representative can make life-ending decisions for you in most cases unless you clearly and unambiguously say they cannot, which may be difficult to do."
A baby is not competent enough to speak up and tell you they are hungry or thirsty. By that logic, should we just not feed babies? See how absurd that sounds?
Oregon Right to Life Director Gayle Atteberry spoke up about this atrocity. She said, "This bill, written in a deceiving manner, has as its goal to save money at the expense of starving and dehydrating dementia and mentally ill patients to death."
She continued, "Oregon law currently has strong safeguards to protect patients who are no longer able to make decisions for themselves. Nursing homes and other organizations dedicated to protecting vulnerable patients work hard to make sure patients receive the food and water they need," Atteberry added. "SB494, pushed hard by the insurance lobby, would take patient care a step backwards and decimate patient rights."
At what point does the evil end? Jesus is coming back y'all.
