The Face of Obamacare: how much is your life worth?

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health adviser to President Barack Obama, is under scrutiny. As a bioethicist, he has written extensively about who should get medical care, who should decide, and whose life is worth saving, writes Betsy McCaughey. And he says this:

“Adolescents have received substantial education and parental care, investments that will be wasted without a complete life. Infants, by contrast, have not yet received these investments. . . . As the legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin argues, ‘It is terrible when an infant dies, but worse, most people think, when a three-year-old dies and worse still when an adolescent does,’ this argument is supported by empirical surveys.” (thelancet.com, Jan. 31, 2009).

Dr. Emanuel can smile. His life is worth more than yours. Think so? I want to see the empirical survey that measures the perceived worth of a bioethicist’s life. I’m thinking that the survey would probably look a lot like Obama’s current approval ratings, and the trend would be going down.

How much is your life worth?
Read the entire Wall Street Journal piece by Betsy McCaughey (while you still can).