"In the Blink of an Eye"

Canadian disability rights activist Mark Pickup (www.humanlifematters.blogspot.com) was sent a link to one of the most moving videos I’ve seen in a very long time. Dr. Rachamim Melamed-Cohen was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease 14 years ago and, at the time, was told he had 3-5 years to live. The video, In the Blink of an Eye, can be found at http://www.aish.com/movies/blinkofeye.asp

Since his diagnosis, Dr. Melamed-Cohen has written 9 books—six of them just by moving his eyes. Dr. Cohen is a vehement opponent of euthanasia and “mercy killing.”

In 2002, on Torah.org, Rabbi Yisrael Rutman profiled Dr. Melamed-Cohen and quoted him as saying,

"What is mercy-killing?" he asks. "For whom is the mercy? Is it for the person with an illness? Or is it for the family, so that they should not have to suffer? For the medical establishment, to reduce expenditures? For the insurance companies? Mercy means helping others to live, and with dignity. Helping people to cut their lives short cannot be called mercy."

All the best to Dr. Melamed-Cohen and may God grant him many more years.

Senate Democrats Oppose Helping Women and Children?

It shouldn't be surprising but, yesterday, Senate Democrats defeated an amendment that was designed to help financially challenged and uninsured (not necessarily poor) pregnant women by insuring their unborn children through S-CHIP (The State Children's Health Insurance Program). The S-CHIP program was designed 10 years ago to provide health insurance coverage to children whose parents made too much money to be on Medicaid but made too little to pay for health insurance themselves.

Since 2002, President Bush has allowed states to cover unborn children under the program and this had the win-win benefit of covering the mother as well. The way S-CHIP was written into law, it was designed solely for children under the age of 18. By law, the only way to insure the pregnant mother (if over the age of 18) was to insure her unborn child.

Democrats opposed this and have been fighting to rewrite the legislation to insure the pregnant woman but not her unborn child.

Of course, this defeats the whole point of a childrens' health insurance program. It also allows Democrats to set up a loose and poorly designed experiment in universal health care. Yesterday's vote had less to do with insurance coverage than it did with abortion politics.