Oregon: my new favorite state.

Maybe you missed this little news item that came out last week, regarding some letters that administrators of Oregon's state run health program wrote to some terminally ill patients.
It goes a little something like this:

"We regret to inform you that we do not cover the cost of _________, used to treat your terminal ________. However, we do cover the cost of assisted suicide."

Ok, so I don't think they used those exact words, but I'm sure you get the point. Apparently, Oregon only covers the cost of treatments for terminal conditions if there is more than a 5% chance that it will allow the patient to live for five years. Overall, that seems totally reasonable to me. I mean, you don't pay for a car that doesn't work ten minutes after you bought it.
The dirty little part of the whole thing though, is how they plant the seed in your head to get you thinking about killing yourself. It's like they designed the state so I would want to live there. I wonder what the Burger King drive-thru lanes are like..."Yes sir thank you for your order, would you like some Assisted Suicide with your Double Whopper and large fries today?"
God I hope so.

Of course a bunch of pantywaist turdhuffers from places like the Oregon Health and Science University (whatever that is) are all up in arms over this, calling it "callous", "cruel", and "awesome" - wait, no...I called it awesome. Sorry.
Anyway, a bunch of uppity doctors obsessed with prolonging the lives of their patients are pretty pissed. I absolutely cannot understand why.

It seems to me like Doctors are relatively busy people, and everybody needs a break sometimes, so why not just, with like every third patient, just kind of mention - "Hey, I know its a bum-out being on antibiotics, and the state totally doesn't pay for it either, so I just figured I'd let you know that assisted suicide is an option. Yeah, I understand that you only have Strep Throat, but you know - unemployment is up, and the war in Iraq doesn't look like it's getting over with anytime soon, so you know, this might be a good time to uh...make your exit while you've still got some dignity"
That could potentially really cut down on the workload.

On a slightly more serious note though, I really don't understand why some people are so angry about this. Death is a part of life, and if you're a 300 pound lump of disease-infested goo that can't move or think on your own or bang hot chicks anymore, then what good are you to anybody really? I for one, would not want to stick around for too long with the kind of future that that implies.
Even more seriously, part of the looming health care disaster in the United States exists by virtue of the fact that terminally sick people now can linger on forever in hospice care and nursing homes that are really nothing more than graves-in-waiting until someone runs out of money. And they do. Don't fool yourselves by thinking that these people are surrounded by their loved ones either, because usually they're in a place like that so someone can get them out of their hair. It's sad, it's terrible, but it's also real.

I'm not old, but I know that I'm going to die someday, and while I hope that it happens in a glorious hail of gunfire, I feel certain that something shitty like cancer is more likely. No thank you to that, I'll take the red pill and enter the part of the Matrix that is reserved for dead people instead. I would find it comforting to know that at least I didn't have to pay for it.

Don't worry, I'll leave a note.