I think the drive to get us all talking about dying may be getting a little out of hand. A new 500 page report funded to the tune of $1.5 million by an anonymous donor–would love to know who that was–has recommended that end-of-life medical care be discussed with teenagers. From the New York Times story:
The panel, which included doctors, nurses, insurers, religious leaders, lawyers and experts on aging, said Medicare and other insurers should create financial incentives for health care providers to have continuing conversations with patients on advance care planning, possibly starting as early as major teenage milestones like getting a driver’s license or going to college.
Come on! Do these “experts” really think that healthy teenagers will be able to maturely and soberly reflect on what they might want if they became seriously ill/injured, or when and under what circumstances they would want to die?
Methinks that the technocratic obsession with death and pushing us to accept less care in order to save the system money just jumped the shark.