Socialized Medicine Fails Again: UK Sentences Another Baby To Death
A decade ago, conservatives were mocked by the left for sounding the alarm about “death panels” and the consequences of government-controlled healthcare.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” liberals scoffed in so many words. “It’s just fear mongering to suggest that state would tell someone they have to die.”
Fast forward to 2018. The details may be different than what conservatives feared, but what is happening right now in the United Kingdom could definitely be considered a death panel — and it has chilling implications for socialized health care here in America.
Last year, the plight of young Charlie Gard made headlines after the U.K. government essentially told the child’s parents that they couldn’t seek alternative health care and had no choice but watch the child die.
Now, a similar case is again unfolding in Britain. “Little Alfie Evans was put into a coma by a mysterious brain condition that doctors still have not been able to diagnose,” explained Matt Walsh for The Daily Wire.
“Doctors at Alder Hey hospital in London have decided that Alfie will never get better and his life is no longer worth living,” Walsh continued. “His parents disagree.”
Alfie’s parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, have a simple request: Let us have custody of our own son. The couple wants to be able to make medical decisions for their child, and have him transferred to a Vatican hospital that has offered to attempt treatment. It’s a long shot, but isn’t that better than no shot?
“Mr. Evans wrote on Facebook that they have ‘three air ambulance companies who would take Alfie,'” reported The Daily Mail. “He added: ‘Now we have Milan, Genoa, Rome and Munich all offering help for Alfie.'”
None of that seems to matter. In something that looks like a dystopian George Orwell novel, a panel in Britain has decided that they, not the boy’s parents, are in charge of his medical decisions.
“Supreme Court justices today dismissed their latest application after the Appeal Court approved a plan for withdrawing treatment, bringing Alfie’s life to an end,” explained The Daily Mail.
“We love him. We value him. There is people willing to treat him and we have the state saying, ‘It’s not worth giving him the chance,'” stated Andrea Williams, an attorney who is working with the family.
“Tom and Kate say, ‘Our son’s life is not futile,'” she said. “The alternative is certain death for Alfie at a time ordered by a court that no one is allowed to reveal.”
Matt Walsh went into detail about exactly why this case should be a wake-up call for anyone who values life.
“No matter how anyone tries to frame this case, the dispute is not over any medical controversy. The dispute is over two simple questions: 1) Is life sacred? 2) To whom does a child belong?” he asked.
“The answers from the proponents and agents of socialized medicine are ‘no’ and ‘the State.’ That’s how it is in Europe. And that’s how it will be for us, soon enough,” warned Walsh.
Each time we give more power to the government, it gains that much more control over our lives. That is the dark side of an ever-growing state … and we would be wise to pay attention.
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