An inter-disciplinary community of scholars and policy advocates is concerned by the prospect of a federal health chief who could step in if Joe Biden becomes the next president.
OneNewsNow recently reported that Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and influential bioethicist who was a prime architect of ObamaCare, is suggesting the U.S. should distribute a COVID vaccine globally before it is available to all Americans.
Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, tells OneNewsNow Emanuel, most recently known for saying he wants to die at age 75, takes a position in terms of bioethics "that is detrimental to liberty and human freedom and human equality.
"He didn't say people should be killed at age 75, but he strongly implied in this article, which was published in The Atlantic, that we should all want to die at 75, because after that time, our lives ceased to have real purpose. And if we're not careful, we will end up being remembered as pathetic," Smith relays. "That's the term he used: Pathetic."
Smith, recognized as one of America's premier public intellectuals on bioethics and as a "great defender of life" for his work against suicide and euthanasia, says that attitude towards the aging has no place in healthcare public policy, especially considering the COVID-19 vaccine, which is expected to be made available in the near future.
Smith
Most people agree that it should be first go to the vulnerable and the elderly.
"Emanuel disputes that," says Smith. "He said that the triage, if you will, the rationing should go first to people who would have a longer lifetime of living if their lives were saved, meaning younger people." But as the Discovery Institute fellow points out, "Those people are at far less risk."
Smith concludes that those two examples alone are evidence that Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's attitude toward the elderly and/or those who are no longer working is very problematic.