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Rebuttal to Brooks'
Op-ed
Dying for the Economy’s Sake?
Perish the
Thought, Mr. Brooks!
By Peter S. Kahrmann and Pat Figueroa Jr.
In July, The New York Times’ David Brooks
wrote an op-ed piece titled “Death and Budgets,” a column that has
raised a firestorm of criticism from all corners of the political spectrum.
Brooks cited an essay called “The Good Short
Life” by Dudley Clendinen, a 66-year-old man who is dying from ALS
(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Clendinen, one discovers when reading his essay,is dazzlingly prescient, loving
and in possession of an obvious sense of humor. He calls his disease Lou
“in (Gehrig’s) honor, and because the familiar feels less
threatening.”
Brooks, who is considered a moderate Republican, called
the essay “splendid” and thrilled to the author’s definition of
a life worth living. Brooks then postulated that Clendinen’s decision to
end his life is one that sick and old people should emulate to save the country
from going broke.
The Times columnist wrote: “Instead of
choosing that long, dehumanizing, expensive course, Clendinen has decided to
face death as one of life’s ‘most absorbing thrills and
challenges.’” Brooks then cited Clendinen’s conclusion:
“When the music stops -- when I can’t tie my bow tie, tell a funny
story, walk my dog, talk with (his daughter) Whitney, kiss someone special, or
tap out lines like this -- I’ll know that Life is over. It’s time to
be gone.”
Brooks wrote: “Clendinen’s article is worth
reading for the way he defines what life is. Life is not just breathing and
existing as a self-enclosed skin bag. It’s doing the activities with
others you were put on earth to do.”
But what of, arguably, the smartest man in the world:
Stephen Hawking? He might be the longest living survivor of ALS, the same
condition Clendinen has. Hawking can barely communicate, surely doesn’t
tie his own bow tie, and is not “…a self-enclosed skin bag.”
Should he too give up on life?
Brooks makes an inexcusable error in judgment. He wants
those who are dying to end it all for the fiscal solvency of the country. He
wrote, “This fiscal crisis is about many things, but one of them is our
inability to face death -- our willingness to spend our nation into bankruptcy
to extend life for a few more sickly months.”
Is Brooks talking about rationing health care? Or is he
salivating at the thought of being a one-man “death panel”? Who died
and made him God?
When referencing the burden of health care costs on the
economy, Brooks never once mentioned the gouging of the American public by,
say, pharmaceutical companies. In his essay, Clendinen points out that the drug
Rilutek, which would prolong his life for a short period of time, retails at
$14,000 a year. Rilutek is owned and produced by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
out of Mumbai, India.
In fact, evidence abounds that aggressive marketing by
pharmaceutical companies and the overprescribing of drugs has played a huge
role in the financial crisis. A June 20th article by Cory Franklin
in the United Kingdom newspaper the Guardian points out that the cost of
prescription drugs in the United States “has increased by a staggering
$200 (billion) in two decades,” something Brooks failed to mention or
simply didn’t bother to research. In fact, Brooks failed to mention
several things, including the fact that Clendinen himself wrote, “I
respect the wishes of people who want to live as long as they can.”
Clendinen also pointed out that the cost of a respirator and staff for six
months would “easily cost half a million dollars a year.”
Perhaps the most overlooked comparison between Clendinen
and Hawking is that the professor of applied mathematics and theoretical
physics has survived all this time in a country – Britain -- with
“socialized medicine,” a country where everyone has better health
care than most Americans at about a fraction of the cost.
Brooks’ merciless missive cites people with
Alzheimer’s as a problem too. Rather than focusing on (or even mentioning)
those who charge millions to provide people with Alzheimer’s and their
loved ones with the care they deserve, he wrote: “Americans spent $91
billion caring for Alzheimer’s patients in 2005. By 2015, according to
(Hastings Center cofounder Daniel) Callahan and (Yale surgeon Sherwin) Nuland,
the cost of Alzheimer’s will rise to $189 billion and by 2050 it is
projected to rise to $1 trillion annually.”
And this would be the patients’ fault?
Brooks then wrote, “(I)t is hard to see us reducing
health care inflation seriously unless people and their families are willing to
do what Clendinen is doing -- confront death and their obligations to the
living.”
According to Brooks, the reason for soaring health care
costs is that very old and very sick people insist on clinging to their
miserable lives when they ought to be civic-minded enough to kick the bucket.
We were not aware that when any of us die we are obligated to any of the living
other than our loved ones. The very implication that the dying ought to base
their end-of-life choices on some sense of obligation to the country’s
economy is an implication that itself needs to die. Perhaps Brooks and the
pharmaceutical companies and their ilk ought to rethink and then realign their
obligations so they include the living -- and the dying.
Brooks should be aware that people with disabilities -- to
borrow from the rock group Blue Oyster Cult’s song “(Don't Fear) The
Reaper” -- don’t fear the “Reaper” any more than anybody
else. But our lives are no less valuable than anyone else’s. Suppose we
start considering the idea that columnists with small minds be eliminated
before anyone else? What would Brooks say in his defense? What does he
contribute to society but ill-conceived ideas?
Along that line, what moral values would move anyone to
put a price on life? Should only white men of wealth, with health insurance,
who are not too advanced in age, be allowed to live? Mr. Brooks, are you an
Aryan? We had thought that Olympic champion Jesse Owens had debunked the theory
of creating a “superior race” many generations back.
Brooks’ column is highly dangerous and inflammatory
because it begins by presenting a position that is morally inarguable and then
uses that indefensible position as a launching point for an argument that is
morally repugnant.
In Brooks’ view, it’s not the insurance
companies that reap huge profits by serving as useless, greed-driven middlemen.
It's not the drug companies, which are making out like bandits with virtually
no government oversight. It's not the whole corrupt, overpriced American system
of medicine for profit, which delivers the 37th-best health care in
the world, according to the World Health Organization, at more than twice the
cost of the best (France). No. It's all about us greedy geezers and crips.
We're the ones who are placing an untenable burden on the younger, heartier
citizenry, with our selfish desire to live a little longer.
Yes, life is hard and filled with challenges for many, and
it doesn’t get any easier as we advance in age. But Mr. Brooks, what are
your plans for your parents, provided you are not rid of them already? And what
are your children supposed to do with you when you get older?
Should we end our lives so that some billionaire
doesn’t have to make a tax contribution to the country that provided the
fertile ground to him or her to amass his fortune?
Brooks’ statement that “life is not just
breathing and existing as a self-enclosed skin bag” is an affront to the
millions of quadriplegics, people with other disabilities, and those with
chronic conditions, such as COPD, who make valuable contributions to life,
society and their families daily. Clendinen can choose to go any time he wants,
and in the manner he chooses, but some of us don’t have the same narrowly
defined idea of life.
Some people may be self-enclosed skin bags, but others are
just windbags, Mr. Brooks.
New York state resident Peter Kahrmann is an advocate
for people with disabilities and writes a blog on disability issues.
Kahrmann’s blog can be found on the home page of www.ilusa.com. Pat Figueroa Jr. is the founder
and publisher of Independence Today. |
