U.S.: Does Arizona’s transplant cut-off scream “death panel” to anyone?
- To basically renege on what you promised was [going to] be a chance at life is a very, very bitter indictment of the ethics of the Legislature.
- University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics head Arthur Caplan • Suggesting that Arizona’s recent plan to stop paying for transplants was very unethical. A total of 98 people have been given something of a death sentence in the wake of all of this, which is ironic because Republicans were the very people to speak out against so-called “death panels” during the health care debate. Now, here it is, and it’s happening on a Republican administration’s watch. In one case, a guy came on the list for a liver transplant and was literally screwed by the changes. The cuts were made to close a $1.5-billion gap in Arizona’s budget, but will only save the state $4.5 million, or .3 percent of that budget gap. (Thanks Jonathan Cunnigham for the find.) source
