Grassley told home-state constituents at a town hall meeting that they have "every right to fear" counseling at the end of life. On Thursday, he issued a statement saying that the Senate committee had "dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."
Supporters of the counseling provision call the attacks a deliberate campaign to distort facts and confuse people. But the opponents, with their warnings about government-ordered "euthanasia," appear to be winning the public opinion battle.
As a result, the bipartisan effort to have Medicare reimburse doctors for advising seniors about end-of-life alternatives, such as living wills, hospice care and durable powers of attorney, may itself be on life support. Congressional leaders might decide to drop it, rather than risk jeopardizing the entire health overhaul plan.
An amendment by moderate Blue Dog Democrats, added to the measure on July 31, specifically ruled out counseling that would promote "suicide, assisted suicide or the active hastening of death."
Jim Dau, a spokesman for AARP, which supports the counseling provision, said it was "unfortunate that an issue as important as health care reform has been taken off-course by a sensationalized distortion of a common-sense, compassionate and bipartisan measure that would simply help make sure that our individual values and wishes determine the most difficult decisions we may all have to face."
How euthanasia story quickly caught fire
July 14: House Committee releases text of health care bill. (top right)
July 16: Betsy McCaughey, a Republican and former lieutenant governor of New York, raises the issue of euthanasia on Fred Thompson's radio show. She says that "Congress would make it mandatory - absolutely require - that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner." McCaughey also wrote a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on July 23 that said the House legislation would "pressure the elderly to end their lives prematurely."
July 20: A Phoenix-area blogger, Peter Fleckenstein, relaying his interpretations via Twitter as he goes line-by-line through the bill, posts his interpretation of the counseling provision. He later combines his tweets (right) in a blog post, including sections dealing with end-of-life issues.
July 23: Among those passing along Fleckenstein's analysis are University of Dayton professor Larry Schweikart, who said in an interview that he couldn't remember the original source of the comments about the House bill that he "reposted" on FamilySecurityMatters.com.
July 29: Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal group whose chairman, Mathew D. Staver, is dean of the Liberty University law school, posts an analysis, "reviewed, revised and adapted" from Fleckenstein's original.
