Test Case for Wonderboy's Death Panels: NJ Senator Frank "Nearly Dead" Lautenberg

Our First Rookie's failed health care plan contained a component calling for "death panels." That is, commissions which would rule on whether prescribed medical care was 'worth it' for people, considering the age, ability to continue to contribute to society. etc.

Now there is a high profile opportunity to try that approach, as described in an article found here in the Newark, NJ Star-Ledger.

It seems the perennially-nearly-dead, back-from-the-grave Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg has stomach cancer. The article stated,

"Lautenberg took ill Monday while at home in Cliffside Park. He fell down and phoned his doctor and an ambulance. The senator directed the ambulance to transport him to Manhattan for treatment at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he has been hospitalized ever since. Lautenberg never lost consciousness, his aides said."

I'd say it's debatable if Frank has actually been conscious for years.

He's 86, and had retired from the Senate some years ago. Then his replacement, Bob "The Torch" Torricelli, was nearing a federal indictment for misappropriating campaign funds. So he dropped out of the the primary. Trouble was, that left the Democrats with no candidate, potentially opening the way for Republican Forrester. To stop this, the NJ Supreme Court overruled state law, to allow Lautenberg on the ballot.

So much for the rule of law in New Jersey.

Lautenberg, who has looked like death warmed over for more than a decade, went on to win the geriatric vote, defeating Forrester.

Now the old boy has stomach cancer. At 86, any real death panel would tell Frank to go home and buy a case of Maalox.

Why don't we try a dry run of Wonderboy's idea and see how Frank makes out? You know, remove names of patients, assign them ID numbers, and submit Frank's case, along with a dozen others, to a mock death panel.

Let's be sure to include some of the First Rookie's prominent anti-human ethicians on the panel.

I'm....hehe....dying to see how they'd rule on Lautenberg's appeal for chemotherapy.

The Star-Ledger piece also noted,

"The Democrat still plans to finish out his current term – his fifth in the Senate – and seek re-election in 2014."

Incredible, isn't it? The guy took a head injury skiing a few years ago, and should be in a rest home.

Really, where are those death panels when you need them?