Liverpool Care Pathway – Fur Das Wohl Des Staates

President Obama famously complained that the US constitution,

"says what the state and federal government can't do to you; it doesn't say what it should do for you".

These are pages from the website of AIT (American Institute in Taiwan) –

  

Introduction

We hold these Truths to be self evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.
— United States Declaration of Independence

Above: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were two of the chief authors of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Below: James Madison, generally seen as the "father of the U.S. Constitution."

These words from the Declaration of Independence have always had a special meaning for the people of America.

It is one of our charters of freedom, recited at countless gatherings every Fourth of July, memorized by generations of schoolchildren, invoked by politicians of every party, and frequently cited by the courts in their decisions. Its message, which resonates as forcefully today as it did over two centuries ago, is that protection of the rights of the people is the antecedent, the justification, for establishing civil government. The people do not exist to serve the government, as is the case in tyrannical societies, but rather the government exists to protect the people and their rights. It was a revolutionary idea when first propounded in 1776; it still is today.

John, Lord Acton, The History of Freedom and Other Essays (1907) Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

In the essays that follow, I have tried to explain what some of the more important of those rights are, how they are integrally connected to one another, and how as a matter of necessity their definition changes over time. We do not live in the world of the 18th century, but of the 21st, and while the spirit of the Founders still informs our understanding of constitutionally protected rights, every generation of Americans must recapture that spirit for themselves, and interpret it so that they too may enjoy its blessings.

This last paragraph falls in line with Mr. Obama’s reference to the Constitution being a living document. However, this ‘recapturing of spirit’ is always accomplished with care, consideration and humility.

Quote of note:

"The people do not exist to serve the government, as is the case in tyrannical societies, but rather the government exists to protect the people and their rights. It was a revolutionary idea when first propounded in 1776; it still is today."

In 1787, shortly after the Philadelphia convention adjourned, James Madison sent a copy of the new U.S. Constitution to his friend and mentor, Thomas Jefferson, then American ambassador to France. On the whole, Jefferson replied, he liked the document, but he found one major defect-it lacked a bill of rights. Such a listing, Jefferson explained, "is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth." Jefferson's comment surprised some of the men who had drafted the Constitution; in their minds, the entire document comprised a bill of rights, since it strictly limited the powers of the new government. There was no need, for instance, of any specific assurance that Congress would not establish a church, since Congress had been given no power to do so. But Jefferson, the chief architect of the Declaration of Independence, believed otherwise. Too often, in the past, governments had gone into areas where supposedly they had no power to act, and no authority to be, and the result had been a diminishing or loss of individual rights. Do not trust assumed restraints, Jefferson urged, make the rights of the people explicit, so that no government could ever lay hands on them. Many people agreed with Jefferson's sentiments, and several states made the addition of a bill of rights a condition of approval of the new Constitution.

Quote of note:

"Too often, in the past, governments had gone into areas where supposedly they had no power to act, and no authority to be, and the result had been a diminishing or loss of individual rights. Do not trust assumed restraints, Jefferson urged, make the rights of the people explicit, so that no government could ever lay hands on them. "

These two quotes fit very well into the controversy surrounding the new health bill going through the US Congress which provides that the government will decide, over the heads of the people, what is best and how and in what manner care shall be administered.

This is discussed here –

    Liverpool Care Pathway - A Utilitarian Pathway

Do not trust assumed restraints, Jefferson urged.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, is leading the US government into areas where supposedly it had no power to act.

In the paper he joint-authors with Govind Persad BS ^a and Alan Wertheimer PhD ^a, published  in The Lancet, Dr. Emanuel proposes a ‘complete lives system’ of healthcare.

“Ultimately, the complete lives system does not create 'classes of Untermenschen whose lives and well being are deemed not worth spending money on,' but rather empowers us to decide fairly whom to save when genuine scarcity makes saving everyone impossible.”

This is called “communitarianism”.

The fact is that the “communitarianism” (complete lives system) advocated by Dr. Emanuel and his co-authors is only Utilitarianism by another name. There is little difference between determining who is more worthy - Ubermenschen - than who is less - Untermenschen.

This table is extracted from the Paper. It indicates the prioritisation of medical intervention which the authors favour.

Emanuel has defended himself by saying he has been quoted out of context from an academic work. However that is or is not the case, he is still responsible for floating the idea and thus advancing an invidious trend.

With the intended aim of 'designing' – dumbing down - public opinion into an acceptance of the unacceptable, ideas are being aired, mentioned in these pages.

Do not trust assumed restraints, Jefferson urged.

Quote of note:

"The people do not exist to serve the government, as is the case in tyrannical societies, but rather the government exists to protect the people and their rights. It was a revolutionary idea when first propounded in 1776; it still is today."

In the UK, people are being murdered to save the State money. By definition, then, ours is already a tyrannical society. The US is becoming one.

Ich existiere fur das Wohl des Staates (I exist for the good of the state).