GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE? HELL NO!

[msbobbie]

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

by Borgna Brunner

For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, were never told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness. Informed that they were being treated for “bad blood,” their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all.

The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis—which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.”

Using Human Beings as Laboratory Animals
The true nature of the experiment had to be kept from the subjects to ensure their cooperation. The sharecroppers' grossly disadvantaged lot in life made them easy to manipulate. Pleased at the prospect of free medical care —almost none of them had ever seen a doctor before— these unsophisticated and trusting men became the pawns in what James Jones, author of the excellent history on the subject, Bad Blood, identified as “the longest non-therapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history.”

http://www.tuskegee.edu/global/story.asp?s=1207586

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[Rhythm Guy]

One thing I'd like to see discussed more on conservative talk radio, (which, in OKC, means Laura Ingraham and Rule of Law Radio, if you can pick it up), his the fact that socialized medicine is patently unconstitutional. I don't know if they're trying to convince the great unwashed to be against it or what, but it seems like all you hear is about the rationing, the cost, etc. I understand all those arguments and consider them all valid, but I think if we spend too much time talking about that, and not the philosophical reasons why socialized medicine is wrong, we fall into the trap of pragmatism, and in time, we're back to being Democrat Lites. The fact of the matter is, the main reason socialized medicine is wrong is that it's redistribution of wealth, which is theft, and which makes the person of greater ability and ambition beholden to the person of lesser ability and ambition; while making lesser ability and ambition a virtue.

[msbobbie]

What it does is enslave people to the government. It removes incentive for people to better themselves. It instills fear that one will lose something if they improve their situation.

FOX NEWS just reported the Senate Health .......... committee has approved the Senate version of health care reform.

(Forgive me, they are talking too fast for me today, but it sounds like "free" health care for people earning under $80K. That probably means families.)

I agree rationing and cost are legitimate concerns. I also am concerned about people being used for experiments, as in the Tuskegee "study" and that our health care system will become like the one in China; not overnight but it will lead to that.

http://www.medhunters.com/articles/heal ... China.html

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[Orat]

You are EXACTLY right, RG. We must make our arguments, first and foremost, about the principles at hand. We should never be lured into the pragmatist trap. The fact that it is unconstitutional should be enough. But it is also the case that it is, as Ms. Bobbie pointed out, immoral because it is a form of slavery.

[msbobbie]

By now everyone should know that the State Legislature passed measures for Oklahoma to Opt Out of national health care, and the bill was vetoed by Governor Henry.

You should also know that Governor Hopeful Drew Edmondson refused to join the other states who are filing lawsuits against the feds.

On the last day of the 2010 session, the Legislature voted to file their own lawsuit and another measure was passed that will put the Opt Out question to the people on our November 2010 ballot.

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/O ... t_measures