User:UnicornTapestry/WiP/List of death panels

{{article issues|article=yes|npov=September 2009|original research=September 2009|unencyclopedic=September 2009}} <!-- Please do not remove or change this AfD message until the issue is settled --> {{AfDM|page=List of panels making life or death decisions|logdate=2009 September 13|substed=yes|help=off}} <!-- For administrator use only: {{oldafdfull|page=List of panels making life or death decisions|date=13 September 2009|result='''keep'''}} --> <!-- End of AfD message, feel free to edit beyond this point -->{{rescue}} The magazine ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' published a list of '''panels making life or death decisions'''. This was to determine whether or not there were panels of individuals worldwide making life or death decisions.<ref name=Nangia>{{cite web |url=http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/09/09/the_list_real_life_death_panels?page=0,0 |title=Real Life Death Panels: As Sarah Palin continues to spread misinformation about Barack Obama's health-care plan, FP looks at where the real “death panels” are |first=Aditi |last=Nangia |coauthors=Michael Wilkerson |publisher=[[Foreign Policy]] |date=2009-09-09}}</ref><ref name=Reuters>{{cite web |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS202570+02-Sep-2009+PRN20090902 |title=California's Real Death Panels: Insurers Deny 21% of Claims |publisher=Reuters |date=2009-09-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Life and Death Decision Making |first=Baruch A. |last=Brody |authorlink=Baruch Brody |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1988 |isbn=019505007X}} as reviewed in {{cite journal |journal=[[Journal of Medical Ethics]] |year=1989 |issue=15 |pages=109 |first=C. J. |last=Dickinson |title=Life and Death Decision Making (book review) |url=http://jme.bmj.com/cgi/pdf_extract/15/2/109}}</ref> This followed Sarah Palin's use of the term on a recent web page that caused controversy worldwide. The article looked at other cases where "death panels" might be said to exist and assigned '''points (out of 100 possible)''' for how close they approximated a [[death panel]]. ==Rating system== ===Death penalty: (100/100 points)=== The article gave the most points to panels associated with determining the use of the [[death penalty]]. As of 2009, fifty-eight countries have a death penalty for certain [[crime]]s, and they have a broad range of [[trial]],<ref name=Sundby>{{cite book |title=A Life and Death Decision: A Jury Weighs the Death Penalty |first=Scott E. |last=Sundby |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2007 |isbn=0230600638 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tCPhqBiUUBsC&lpg=PP1&ots=mSog3ycaKF&dq=%22life%20and%20death%20decision%22%20jury&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false}}</ref> [[appeal]]s, and execution decision-making processes.<ref name=Nangia/> Both [[Japan]] and the [[United States]] have a [[Supreme Court]] which effectively acts as each nation's highest ranking death panel making the penalty determination.<ref name=Nangia/> In the [[People's Republic of China]], which leads the world in executions at an estimated 5,000 in 2008, death penalty decisions are made by committee.<ref name=Nangia/> However, beginning in 2007, judicial leaders began requiring a final review of every capital case by the [[Supreme People's Court]] which cut the number of exectutions in half.<ref name=Nangia/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/23/AR2008122302795_pf.html |title=China's Capital Cases Still Secret, Arbitrary |first=Maureen |last=Fan |coauthors=Ariana Eunjung Cha |publisher=Washington Post |date=2008-12-24}}</ref> [[Iran]] and [[Saudi Arabia]] have an appeals process but nevertheless execute a high proportion of their prisoners.<ref name=Nangia/> ===Physician Assisted Suicide: (30/100 points)=== Programs for legal physician-assisted suicide exist in parts of the USA, as well as Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands though the Netherlands and Switzerland do not have "death panels" to determine eligibility.<ref name=Nangia/> ===Texas "futile care" law: (25/100 points)=== In [[Texas]], the [[Advance Directives Act]], known also as the Texas Futile Care Law, permits a board of physicians to allow a patient in their [[hospital]] to die if they determine further medical care would be [[futile medical care]], regardless of the wishes of the patient or their family.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041001620.html?referrer=delicious |title=Case Puts Texas Futile-Treatment Law Under a Microscope: Statute Allows for Deadline on Care |first=Sylvia |last=Moreno |publisher=Washington Post |date=2007-04-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lifenews.com/bio2938.html |title=Health Care "Reform" Bills Would Exacerbate Death Panels Already in Texas |first=Steven |last=Ertelt |publisher=LifeNews.com |date=2009-08-26}}</ref> The law does require the panel to inform the patient's family two days before it meets to make its decision, and the family has 10 days to transfer its loved one to another facility.<ref name=Nangia/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baylorhealth.edu/proceedings/13_2/13_2_fine.html |title=Medical futility and the Texas Advance Directives Act of 1999 |first=Robert L, MD |last=Fine |publisher=Office of Clinical Ethics, Baylor; Baylor Health Care System; and the Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center |location=Dallas, Texas |month=April |year=2000}}</ref> ===Extraordinary Treatment Panels: (15/100 points)=== In [[United Kingdom|Britain]], the [[National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence]] advises the [[National Health Service]] on which drugs are [[cost-effective]],<ref name=Nangia/> and stands accused of giving certain patients an early [[death sentence]] by not granting public funding for some cancer drugs which cost exorbitant amounts and afford only a few extra months of life.<ref>{{cite web |title=Drug denial is devastating 'death sentence' for cancer patients |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1042389/NICE-delivers-death-sentence-cancer-patients-rejects-new-drugs.html |first=Jenny |last=Hope |publisher=Daily Mail |date=2008-08-07}}</ref> However, patients may still chose to pay [[out of pocket]], as currently happens to Americans should a U.S. [[health insurance]] provider deny their [[Claim (legal)|claim]].<ref name=Nangia/> An extensive appeals process by which patients and their doctors can request these treatments. The patient’s doctor submits a request to a local trust, and a panel comprised of at least one doctor reviews it. While some exceptions are granted, most are not. The patient is left with the choice of paying out-of-pocket or foregoing the treatment (which also happens in the United States, if an insurer refuses a claim). In [[California]], [[health insurance]] companies are required by law to report all denials of claims to the [[Department of Managed Health Care|Department of Managed Care]], revealing 21% of all claims were rejected between 2002 and mid-2009 amounting to "real death panels in practice daily in the nation's biggest state" according to a [[Reuters]] report.<ref name=Reuters>{{cite web |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS202570+02-Sep-2009+PRN20090902 |title=California's Real Death Panels: Insurers Deny 21% of Claims |publisher=Reuters |date=2009-09-02}}</ref> ==Sarah Palin's claim of "Obama's death panels"== Former [[Republican Party (United States) vice presidential candidates, 2008|vice presidential candidate]] [[Sarah Palin]]'s assertion, that [[America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009]] – the [[Obama Administration]]'s [[Health care reform in the United States|health care reform act]] – would result in a "downright evil"<ref name="DeathPanel">{{cite web |date=2009-08-07 |publisher=ABC News Senior White House Correspondent |first=Jake |last=Tapper |url=http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/08/palin-paints-picture-of-obama-death-panel-giving-thumbs-down-to-trig.html |title=Palin Paints Picture of 'Obama Death Panel' Giving Thumbs Down to Trig |quote=Palin posted the following comments on the web - 'And who will suffer the most when they ration care?' Palin asks. 'The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.'}}</ref> system of "death panels",<ref name=Nangia/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574400581157986024.html |title=Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care: The president's proposals would give unelected officials life-and-death rationing powers |first=Sarah |last=Palin |authorlink=Sarah Palin |publisher=Wall Street Journal |quote=Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by—dare I say it—death panels? |date=2009-09-08}}</ref> was not rated but was declared as "false". Palin's claims about the proposed law were also debunked in other media.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/aug/10/palin-death-panel-remark-sets-truth-o-meter-fire/ |title=Palin 'death panel' claim sets Truth-O-Meter ablaze |first=Angie Drobnic |last=Holan |publisher=St. Petersburg Times |location=Florida |date=2009-08-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/23/betsy-mccaughey/mccaughey-claims-end-life-counseling-will-be-requi/ |title=McCaughey claims end-of-life counseling will be required for Medicare patients |publisher=St. Petersburg Times |location=Florida |date=2009-07-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/13/sarah-palin/palin-claims-obama-misled-when-he-said-end-life-co/ |title=Palin claims Obama misled when he said end-of-life counseling is voluntary |publisher=St. Petersburg Times |location=Florida |date=2009-08-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://mediamatters.org/research/200908150001 |publisher=Media Matters for America |title=Media have debunked the death panels, 40 times over |date=2009-08-15}}</ref> ==See also== *[[Euthanasia]] *[[Healthcare rationing in the United States]] *[[Government involvement in the Terri Schiavo case]] ==References== {{reflist|2}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Panels making life or death decisions, List of}} [[Category:Decisions relating to death]] [[Category:Medical sociology]] [[Category:Causes of death]] [[Category:Euthanasia]] [[Category:Capital punishment]]