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Sanctity of Life
July 15, 2010 (C-FAM) -- by Joan Frawley Desmond -- National Catholic Register
Sister Carol Keehan: 'I Don't Worry About Us Rationing'
Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, holds up a pen June 13 at the 2010 CHA convention in Denver. The ceremonial pen was one of 20 used by U.S. President Obama to sign the health care reform bill into law.
Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, came under fire from some quarters when she vocally supported this year's congressional reform of the health-care delivery system.
Now Sister Carol, a member of the Daughters of Charity, is being criticized for her support of Dr. Donald Berwick, a professor at Harvard Medical School who received a recess appointment from President Obama to be administrator of the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
more
July 14, 2010 -- By Susan Jones -- (CNSNews.com)
Obama Administration Approves First Direct Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Through New High-Risk Insurance Pools
If you want proof that President Obama's Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio)
more
Jul 9, 2010 -- (CNA)
Catholic Health Association praises Berwick recess appointment to Medicare post.
The Catholic Health Association (CHA) has applauded President Obama’s recess appointment of Harvard pediatrician Dr. Donald Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Sr. Carol Keehan, D.C., CHA’s president and chief executive officer, said Berwick is needed to work on the health care mandates created by the recent health care legislation. In a Wednesday CHA press release, she reported that CMS has not had a permanent administrator since 2006.
more
The same Catholic "num" who supported and applauded the Obama pro-abortion health carwe bill is now applauding the choice of a pro rationing director.
On June 8th, 2010 American Life League President Judie Brown called for Cardinal Francis George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to demand the removal of Sr. Carol Keehan from her position as head of the Catholic Health Association.
On July 5th. The Knights of Malta pressured Keehan to resign from a prestigious hospital board post.
Cardinal Francis George, please restore our faith in the Conference of Catholic Bishops and request her dismissal.
The current health reform bills support abortion by not excluding it. Unfortunately many Catholic organizations choose to support reform although they must realize that they are supporting abortion.
From: Alex Majthenyi [mailto:alex@delphicom.com]
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 2:55 AM
To: Sister Carol Keehan
Subject: Health Care
The current health care reform bill clearly supports taxpayer funded abortions.
The current administration will not pass a plan that does not include abortion.
Please stop supporting health care reform.
Please stop supporting abortion.
Alex Majthenyi
Reply:
From: Sister Carol Keehan [mailto:ckeehan@chausa.org]
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 09:16 AM
To: 'Alex Majthenyi'
Subject: REPLY RE: Health Care
Alex Majthenyi … For the last two years the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA) has been guided by the foundational document, "Our Vision for U.S. Health Care," ( http://www.catholichealthcare.us/NR/rdonlyres/E60430CC-C0FD-4099-A563-A1C621DC83A2/0/OurVisionDoc.pdf ) which details the moral case for reform by clearly presenting a set of values and principles.
The lead value is: "Human Dignity: Because each person is created in the image of God, each life is sacred and possesses inalienable worth.
Health care is essential to promoting and protecting the inherent dignity of every individual from conception to natural death." Among the principles articulated is: "Health care in the U.S. should be patient centered and designed to address health needs at all stages of life, from conception to natural death." The Catholic health ministry of the Church continues Jesus’ mission of love and healing and is rooted in the belief that every life is a sacred gift.
Guided by these values, principles, and Catholic social teaching, CHA has written letters to members of Congress and the White House – often in conjunction with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – calling for legislation that does not include an expansion of abortion. Furthermore, our commitment to the inherent dignity of all persons has called us to advocate laws and policies that protect our religious and moral tenets. In personal conversations with members of Congress and their staffs and in letters, CHA continues to work to ensure that public policies reflect the importance of religious freedom and conscience clause protections in the delivery of health and social services. Clearly, our letters, statements, web-based information and outreach efforts speak eloquently to the deep commitment to the dignity of life. Therefore, the association and its members continue to push a legislative agenda that would commit this nation to respecting the dignity and life of each person while ensuring enactment of a health care system that is of the greatest possible quality and available and accessible to everyone. Also, I invite you to read the Catholic News Service article on our position http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0903516.htm . Best wishes.
Fred Caesar
Special Assistant to the President - Communications Catholic Health Association of the United States
1875 Eye Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC, 20006-5440
P (swb): 202-296-3993
F: 202-296-3997
E: fcaesar@chausa.org
To:Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director
NETWORK
President Obama is pro-abortion and a strong supporter of the "Freedom of Choice Act". As Senator, Obama said: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do."
The proposed Health Care Reform bills are ambiguous and leave ample room for interpretation. Abortion is not mentioned in the but certainly would be covered. Legislators have stated that they would not include abortion limitations in the bill and have repeatedly defeated pro-life amendments.
We realize that your organization may be supporting it hoping that it will be amended to ban abortions It will not. If the bill passes taxpayers will be funding abortions.
Supporting this bill is supporting abortion. Supporting it also provides propaganda material for the administration, misleads Catholics and will alienate contributors.
You state that "we can't miss this opportunity to do something" but supporting abortion is worse than doing nothing.
Alex Majthenyi
No Reply
"Freedom of Choice Act"
FOCA
"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do."
Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007
On April 18 The U.S. Supreme Court decision upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The next day, Democratic members of Congress reintroduced the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA), a proposed federal law to nullify virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion.
The House bill, H.R. 1964, was introduced by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who is the chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee that has jurisdiction over such legislation. The House bill had 71 cosponsors. (70 Democrats, 1 Republican)
The Senate bill, S. 1173, introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.), had 13 Democratic cosponsors,
The bills would invalidate all federal and state limitations on abortion and prohibit denial of choice:
(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman;
Text of House bill
Text of Senate bill
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Gospel of Life
Father Tom Euteneuer
How important is it to proclaim the entire Gospel of Life?
If you don’t proclaim the whole Gospel of Life, you’re just anti-abortion. And it is important to be anti-abortion, but the Church isn’t only anti-abortion. As we see the Church’s comprehensive teaching on the life issues, it sees the sanctity of human life from across the spectrum, from the moment of natural conception to the moment of natural death. And it sees human life inserted into the context of certain sacred realities like marriage and family, which are divine institutions.
More: Inside the Vatican
Health Care Rationing & End of Life
On March 23, 2010 President Obama signed into law an anti-life, unpopular healthcare restructuring plan, passed by the slimmest of margins. If the Obama Health Care Rationing Law is not repealed by 2013 before its most dangerous provisions come into effect, the result will be the rationing denial of lifesaving medical treatment, and consequent premature and involuntary death, of an unknown but immense number of Americans. The pro-life movement must devote itself over the upcoming critical years to ensuring that the American people are given the facts needed to counter the misinformation.
Under the Obama Health Care Law, doctors and hospitals will no longer be free to determine, in consultation with the patient, what treatment and diagnostic tests are best suited to the patient’s condition. Instead, as a condition of being allowed to contract with qualified health insurance plans, all doctors and other health care providers will have to comply with “quality and efficiency” standards imposed by Washington with the objective of forcing private health care spending below the rate of medical inflation.
More
Health Reform Bills
The House Bill on page 230 gives some guidance to the limitations the government will impose on services it will authorize:
"payment for non-therapy ancillary services. Such analysis shall consider use of appropriate indicators which may include age, physical and mental status, ability to perform activities of daily living, prior nursing home stay:
President Omama's view:
At a healthcare town hall, he says stopping futile procedures for the terminally ill can lower costs.
Reporting from Washington — President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive and ultimately futile procedures performed on people who are about to die and don't stand to gain from the extra care.
In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."
He added: "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller."
Source: Obama discusses deathbed measures
Peter Nicholas, LA Times, June 25, 2009
The Republican Party's Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights is straightforward. It calls for:
* Protecting Medicare and not cutting it in the name of "health care reform;"
* Prohibiting government from getting between seniors and their doctors;
* Outlawing any effort to ration health care based on age;
* Preventing government from interfering with end-of-life care discussions;
* Ensuring seniors can keep their current coverage; and,
* Protecting veterans by preserving Tricare and other benefit programs for military families.
The Veterans Administration
Wile this policy is being debated another end of life publication surfaced at the Veterans Administration:
Your Life, Your Choices: Planning for Future Medical Decisions
This 52 page booklet was produced in 1997 but was withdrawn. It was again produced and distributed in August of 2009. It was posted to the VA website at: http://www1.va.gov/pugetsound/docs/ylyc.pdf
As of today (Aug 24, 2009) that address returns an error message: PAGE NOT FOUND
Elswhere on the VA site we found the booklet with this message::
Note – The following is a 1997 publication that was produced under VA IIR Grant No. 94-050, "Development of an Advance Care Planning Workbook," 4/01/95 – 3/31/97.
The document is currently undergoing revision for release in VA. The revised version will be available soon.
In any case, you will probably receive a similar booklet if a health reform bill passes. Meanwile, you can read the booklet here:
Your Life, Your Choices
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