“Let’s see if we can have a reasoned discussion about end-of-life counseling.

We might start by asking Sarah Palin to leave the room. I’ve got nothing against her. She’s a remarkable political talent. But there are no ‘death panels’ in the Democratic health-care bills, and to say that there are is to debase the debate…

It’s surely not a death panel. But it is subtle pressure applied by society through your doctor. And when you include it in a health-care reform whose major objective is to bend the cost curve downward, you have to be a fool or a knave to deny that it’s intended to gently point the patient in a certain direction, toward the corner of the sickroom where stands a ghostly figure, scythe in hand, offering release.”

***
“I may be repeating myself on this, but Governor Palin never said that a specifically named ‘Death Panel’ existed in Obamacare. She clearly made the point that such a government entity would be the natural result of a government run, rationed health care system. In fact, ‘Death Panels’ appeared in quotations in her very first Facebook note on the subject, signifying that it was being used as a metaphor…

I just don’t understand the behavior of these so-called ‘intellectuals.'”