Die wunderkindern Emanuels von Chicago! One of the sons of Dr. Emanuel of Chicago is also a medical doctor and a Chicagoan: Ezechiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD. I have posted a recent photograph and some complimentary biographical comments courtesy of a Chicago newspaper columnist. And I post parts of a recent paper Dr. Emanuel published in JAMA, as below:
WASHINGTON--While the Obama White House is searching for a replacement for health czar Tom Daschle, policy work on health care reform--a priority for the administration--Is ongoing with one key advisor especially well connected.
The brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a noted bioethicist, is advising the Obama administration on health care reform.
Dr. Emanuel is the Chair of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health and a breast oncologist.
Dr. Emanuel is a special advisor to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget for health policy. He told me he is "working on (the) health care reform effort." He is "detailed" to the OMB spot and is still officially an employee of the NIH.
Until last August, Dr. Emanuel was commuting between his Chicago home in West Rogers Park and Washington. He moved to Washington last August after his youngest daughter graduated from Northside College Prep at Bryn Mawr and Kedzie.
One of three wildly successful Emanuel brothers (Ari is a Hollywood superagent) Dr. Emanuel also advised the Clinton White House on health care issues. He is a graduate of Amherst College, receiving his masters of science from Oxford University in Biochemistry. His M.D. is from Harvard Medical School. He holds a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard University. In addition, in 1987-88, he was a fellow in the Program in Ethics and the Professions at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
According to his NIH bio, Dr. Emanuel is "widely published on the ethics of clinical research, advance care directives, end-of-life issues, euthanasia, the ethics of managed care, and the physician-patient relationship, Dr. Emanuel's articles have appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of American Medical Association, and many other medical and ethics journals. His book, The Ends of Human Life, has been widely praised and received the Rosenhaupt Memorial Book Award by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
"Dr. Emanuel served on the ethics section of former President Clinton's Health Task Force, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and the International Advisory Board on Bioethics of the Pan American Health Organization. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UCLA, and Brin Professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School."
The Cost-Coverage Trade-off
"It's Health Care Costs, Stupid" (His words, not mine; my italics.) Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD
JAMA. 2008;299(8):947-949
Figure. Cost-Coverage Trade-off in the United States by State in 2005
Each state's uninsured rate for 2005 for the population younger than 65 years (because Americans aged 65 years and older are nearly all covered by Medicare) vs family health insurance premiums as a percentage of median state household income to attain a determination of "affordability of health coverage." Controlling for median state income, proportion of minorities, part-time workers, and women in the workforce shows that for every 10% increase in the average family health insurance premium, the rate of the uninsured younger than 65 years increases by 0.55%. The points for Iowa and Florida illustrate how rates can differ markedly between states. The curve was fit using the least squares method.
Dr. Emanuel is the brother of Ari in Hollywood and Rahm in Washington. He is the new Health Czar replacing former senator Tom Daschle. Too numerous articles to cite, much less to quote. The above article will give a little of the flavor, though. He is arrogant, intelligent, outspoken, and ambitious. He is a genuine elite in medicine. And he has pointed out repeatedly that a life is not a life is not a life (as opposed to Gertrude Stein and roses). He puts actual emanuelized values on a human life. Not as a philosopher, either. He is writing as health care czar, bioethicist-in-chief for the Obama administration, and cost cutting theorist in charge. Read some of his writings on the matter of valuation of a human life and cutting the cost of medical care in America and you will wonder how exactly he derived his ethics. I submit to you, dear readers, the oath of Hippocrates, the oath of Maimonides, and the Jewish version of the Ten Commandments. I also submit that there is nothing in atheism to use as a system of ethics, nothing at all. (Moral atheists are borrowing parts of a parent culture to construct their own morality--Jews/Jewish morality; Christians/Christian morality; Muslims/Muslim morality, take the parent culture, extract some elements of its moral code, and arrive at your own atheist morality.) When he puts grandmother on the ice flow in order to free up monies for children's vaccinations he is devaluing grandmother's life. Check for yourself in the Big Three sources for physician ethics. See how many tenets Dr. Ezechiel Emanuel violates.
Obama lies; grandma dies; Ezechiels advise.
The Ten Commandments courtesy of : http://www.holidays.net/shavuot/ten.htm.
On the third day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, Moses was commanded by G-d to prepare the Jewish people for G-d's descent and visit. The Israelites washed and purified their clothes and their bodies. Three days later, on the sixth day of Sivan, the people were awaken by thunder and lightning. Thick, dark clouds hung over the mountain. The sounds of the Shofar, the ram's horn, were heard echoing across the desert. The earth began to tremble and shake. Then the Israelites heard a voice, G-d's voice, as he spoke to them from out of the clouds.
And G-d gave them his Ten Commandments*
*(Please note: Because Shavuot is a Jewish celebration we are presenting the Jewish interpretation of the Ten Commandments. Different religions have different versions of the commandments)
"I am the Lord your G-d, Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery"
"You shall have no other gods but me"
"You shall not take the name of your Lord in vain"
"You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy"
"Honor your father and mother"
"You shall not murder"
"You shall not commit adultery"
"You shall not steal"
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor"
"You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his bull, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour's."
*(Please note: Because Shavuot is a Jewish celebration we are presenting the Jewish interpretation of the Ten Commandments. Different religions have different versions of the commandments)
Moses went up the mountain and returned with the Tablets that contained the Ten Commandments.
The Oath of Maimonides courtesy of www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rambam-oath.html .
"The eternal providence has appointed me to watch over the life and health of Thy creatures. May the love for my art actuate me at all time; may neither avarice nor miserliness, nor thirst for glory or for a great reputation engage my mind; for the enemies of truth and philanthropy could easily deceive me and make me forgetful of my lofty aim of doing good to Thy children.
May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain.
Grant me the strength, time and opportunity always to correct what I have acquired, always to extend its domain; for knowledge is immense and the spirit of man can extend indefinitely to enrich itself daily with new requirements.
Today he can discover his errors of yesterday and tomorrow he can obtain a new light on what he thinks himself sure of today. Oh, God, Thou has appointed me to watch over the life and death of Thy creatures; here am I ready for my vocation and now I turn unto my calling."
The Oath of Hippocrates courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
The Hippocratic Oath is perhaps the most widely known of Greek medical texts. It requires a new physician to swear upon a number of healing gods that he will uphold a number of professional ethical standards. One of the best known prohibitions is, "to do no harm".
"I swear by Apollo the physician, and Asclepius, and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses as my witnesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this contract:
To hold him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to be a partner in life with him, and to fulfill his needs when required; to look upon his offspring as equals to my own siblings, and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or contract; and that by the set rules, lectures, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to students bound by this contract and having sworn this Oath to the law of medicine, but to no others.
I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgement, and I will do no harm or injustice to them.
I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.
In purity and according to divine law will I carry out my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, even upon those suffering from stones, but I will leave this to those who are trained in this craft.
Into whatever homes I go, I will enter them for the benefit of the sick, avoiding any voluntary act of impropriety or corruption, including the seduction of women or men, whether they are free men or slaves.
Whatever I see or hear in the lives of my patients, whether in connection with my professional practice or not, which ought not to be spoken of outside, I will keep secret, as considering all such things to be private.
So long as I maintain this Oath faithfully and without corruption, may it be granted to me to partake of life fully and the practice of my art, gaining the respect of all men for all time. However, should I transgress this Oath and violate it, may the opposite be my fate."
(Translated by Michael North, National Library of Medicine, 2002.)
Italics are mine, DJH.
The arrogance of the wunderkindern Emanuels is irksome but one would not expect anyone to die of it. In the right circles it might impress people. But in America's Health Care under Obama this arrogance combined with Dr. Ezechiel J. Emanuel's peculiar post Judeo-Christian ethics will propel an ugly agenda in which the lives of all Americans are not equal in value and in which none are sacred. Our new Health Czar is a true medical elite. But he is also one of the Chicago group of thugs and crooks who presently control our country. For now this cabal controls our destiny, too--at least until we wake up and show them all the exit door.
Wolves in sheep's clothing might bruise us in the Treasury Department or Education or Agriculture. They will kill us in Health Care Reform. Literally! A life is not a life is not a life. Write to your senator and representative to demand a better czar!
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