Jon Stewart is really smart but he missed 2 key points with the Death Panel Lady

She said people say they don't want a ventilator, but when the moment comes, maybe you do. Jon Stewart said something like maybe in the throes of it isn't the best time to make the decision, but I think he missed the fact that ----

Living wills are in place for WHEN YOU ARE INCAPACITATED so that people know what your wishes were/are. If you are still capable of making a choice for a ventilator, then no one is going to say - "oh, no no no. You said you didn't want one in 2001."

Second point - a living will WILL KEEP YOU ALIVE if you make your wishes known. Granddaughter who hasn't seen Grandma in 40 years says, "My Grandma would NEVER want a feeding tube and a ventilator - pull the plug now!" Doctor says, "Au contraire, your grandmother
says just the opposite in her living will." If Grandma didn't have the living will that the House Bill encouraged, she might be in an urn on the mantel the next day.

No one is MANDATING DEATH. They are SUGGESTING that you make your wishes known. Like they do right now. Every single friggin time you go to the hospital. Right now.

My mother used a do-it-yourself version and handed it out to us kids. When I went over the implications of each choice she changed her answered to two options (one was whether a feeding tube would be used, I forget the other.) Her doctor would have been an even better resource for this but had she not had children who paid attention she would have had a wholly different set of instructions than she intended.

it's a very sensible thing to do.

When you're taking on the devil, not every detail is crucial.

The comedian I wish could interview the right-wingers is (may he rest in peace) Sam Kinison.

I saw him perform once in a very small room, before he hit the big-time. He had the right tone and inquisitive approach to take with tea-baggers, town hall disrupters, hate radio yappers, and old fucks who don't know Medicare is a government program. Maybe I should let my hair grow and get a beret and a trench coat and do some Sam inspired interviews. Better stock up on throat lozenges before I do, though.

I'm just building on his groundwork. He himself made me think of my points when he kept pointing out to her that the language included the words "life sustaining". He just didn't bring the point home.

I absolutely adore Jon Stewart. The reason he was and is so successful is that he WAS PREPARED. He had read the bill and completely ready and comfortable with debating her on the finer points of it. He actually seemed to know the bill better than she did, which is why she was so nonplussed when he asked her to find the actual verbiage that said what she said it did. Imagine if that douchebag David Gregory were even 1/4 as prepared on Sunday mornings.

This habit of reading, absorbing, understanding and being able to dissect quickly is what sets Rachel and Jonathan Stewart apart from the rest of the crowd. I rank KO ever so slightly below them and Big Eddy is coming up fast.

Nothing can replace actual knowledge in a debate.

I whole=heartedly agree.

Just started watching Ed in the last couple weeks, (got let go so have time on my hands) and I like him a lot.

He's not the usual "left intellect" that I'm used to, but he damn sure knows his stuff...and he's a damn bulldog...love it.

So where do I go to start my own threads?

Been here about a monf now and can't find the "new thread" button to save my life.

*scratching my head*

someday you will see a button that says "post" in your toolbar. It's right next to "My DU" where you control your account. You're probably close at this point.

You seem quite insightful and perspicacious. I particularly like the title of your response to my OP - "Excellent Points"


Welcome to DU :hi:

because i KNEW it was bullshit. it's not like when you write a will even if you change your mind you are stuck with it... you can change your mind at any time. but it's tough to make those decisions while you are in a coma or not lucid. We dealt with that in April when my dad was diagnosed with cancer. He was talking about the air force and thinking he was in a government building or something... It was tough to watch.... but even tougher when we had to make those decisions for him not really knowing what he wanted. and that included things besides a ventilator... like giving him fluids and oxygen and such.... the fluids made him swell up all over because his organs were shutting down and there was nowhere for the fluids to go. I am sure if he could have made those decisions beforehand... before he needed to, he would have done it. he wouldn't have wanted us to go through all that.

we're very lucky to get what we do get from him.

It's not his fault real journalists aren't doing their jobs and comedians are filling the vacuum. As good a job as they're doing, we can't expect them to be Murrow or Cronkite or Moyers.

I yelled to my partner that Mccaughey was wrong when she stated something to the effect that, when the ultimate medical decision-making time has come, the living will declarations can be overridden by the patient or by a family member. It goes without saying that a coherent patient who is able to communicate has the choice to change the living will provisions at any subsequent time - even at the time live-saving measures are being considered. Mccaughey, who at times seemed nearly incoherent herself in the interview with John Stewart, seemed to be making the absurd suggestion that a mentally incapacitated patient who is unable to communicate could change the living will declarations. The whole point of a living will is that it takes over when the patient is mentally incapacitated and unable to communicate. Also, contrary to Mccaughey's assertion, a family member can not override the living will declarations of a patient - specifically those of a an incapacitated patient who is unable to communicate life-saving or life-ending instructions. (Perhaps an exception would be if a court were to appoint a family member as guardian of the person of the patient, but I do not think that is the situation which Mccaughey spoke of.) These points popped into my mind as I watched the interview. I am a general legal practitioner who has written many living wills for clients, and I have had years to reflect upon their their purpose. Jon Stewart, who is much brighter than I am, does not have that background, and the weaselly Mccaughey used that to her advantage in slipping her canards by him.

:eyes:

They are not filed with state, or the doctor, or the lawyer, unless you so choose. Normally you keep them in your safe deposit or your desk drawer, and you tell your children where to find them. These are simply exhibits of you PERSONAL wishes. There is no government involvement, no filing.

But the best part of the whole thing, was exposing her as an extremist. Where she either had really shitty reading comprehension skills were really skewed by what she WANTED to believe or she intentionally skewed the information to her needs. i.e. lied

what was said in the law to make it fit "death panel". If the GOP are going to outright lie to their followers they should be adult enough to be called liars without sending out some blond with 500 pages of text where she couldn't "quite" find the actual passage that proves her point.

That is all. :loveya: