By Burke Balch, JD, Director, Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics Pro-life Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has signed into law HB 3017, a bill championed by Oklahomans For Life that will replace a widely circulated “Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment” (POLST) form that nudged people to reject life-saving treatment. It substitutes a neutrally-phrased document that …
Continue reading "New Oklahoma law fights anti-life treatment bias"By Burke J. Balch, J.D., director, Powell Center for Medical Ethics at the National Right to Life Committee Last week, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) introduced S. 1549, the Care Planning Act of 2015, to use federal tax dollars to pay health care professionals to counsel older people in deciding …
Continue reading "Tax dollars could be spent to “nudge” older people to agree to premature death under Senate bill"By Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of NRLC’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics People with disabilities must be killed when they consent under a February 6, 2015, decision by Canada’s highest court striking the Canadian law protecting against assisting suicide. Unlike doctor-prescribed suicide laws in Oregon, Washington and Vermont that theoretically are limited to …
Continue reading "Canada’s Supreme Court Mandates Assisting Suicide for People with Disabilities"By Burke. J. Balch, J.D., director, NRLC’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics President Obama has been among the many deploring the reality that despite an improving economy, middle-class wages have remained largely stagnant. Yet there is now evidence that the rationing provisions of Obamacare are partly responsible. Even during recessions, in the past the …
Continue reading "How Obamacare Rationing is Harming the Economy"By Burke J. Balch, J.D., director, National Right to Life’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics Editor’s note. This story appeared in the post-election digital edition of National Right to Life News. You can read the entire 34 page issue at www.nrlc.org/uploads/NRLNews/NRLNewsNov2014.pdf On November 13, 2014, the lower house of New Jersey’s legislature voted 43 …
Continue reading "New Jersey Assembly vote for doctor-prescribed suicide raises threat of nonvoluntary euthanasia"By Burke J. Balch, J.D., director, National Right to Life’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics On November 13, 2014, the lower house of New Jersey’s legislature voted 43 to 31 to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide. The bill may yet be stopped in the state senate or vetoed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has …
Continue reading "New Jersey Assembly Vote for Doctor-Prescribed Suicide Raises Threat of Nonvoluntary Euthanasia"By Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of the National Right to Life Committee’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics These days, as for some time past, much outrage is directed at pricey drugs, and both the government and insurance companies increasingly implement policies to keep patients from getting them. To give one widely-publicized example, Members …
Continue reading "Even bigoted study finds high-cost drugs worth it"By Burke Balch, JD, Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics While critical access to top health care providers is already being severely restricted in the individual health insurance plans on the Obamacare exchanges, there is reason to believe that when the exchanges are expanded to employees of all businesses, many employers will end their …
Continue reading "Healthcare spiraling downwards as ObamaCare takes hold, worse yet to come"By Burke Balch, JD, Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics Editor’s note. This appeared in the May issue of National Right to Life News which can be read in its entirety at www.nrlc.org/uploads/NRLNews/NRLNewsMay2014.pdf While critical access to top health care providers is already being severely restricted in the individual health insurance plans on the …
Continue reading "Healthcare spiraling downwards as ObamaCare takes hold, worse yet to come"By Burke Balch, JD, Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics Editor’s note. We posted this story from Mr. Balch on Thursday, February 27. On Friday, February 28, as we were about to post the February/March issue of National Right to Life News, we learned that “A Place for Mom” had removed “The importance of …
Continue reading "“Senior Living Referral Service” promtes assisting suicide"By Burke Balch, JD & Jennifer Popik, JD, Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics Two new reports highlight the growing evidence that, thanks to Obamacare, the quality of many Americans’ current healthcare is gradually declining. New Obamacare exchange plans are going to be more restrictive, with less access to doctors and healthcare centers with …
Continue reading "More Obamacare Rationing Fallout"By Burke Balch, JD & Jennifer Popik, JD, Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new report that showed that for the fourth year in a row, healthcare spending was at a near-record low. 2009 to 2012 saw the slowest health care spending growth since …
Continue reading "Tragically, Health-Care Spending is Slowing"