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September 22, 2014|Aging, Ezekiel Emanuel, innovation, Obamacare

In Sickness and in Health

by John O. McGinnis|4 Comments

If Ezekiel Emanuel (age 57)  had just stated his preference for dying at 75 or if he were a citizen uninvolved in public affairs, no attention need be paid. There is no use disagreeing with tastes, and the world is full of eccentrics. But Emanuel was one of the enthusiastic cheerleaders of the President’s health care plan, and he offers a lot of reasons to justify his preference. The considerations he adduces and those he fails to account for provide an unsettling perspective on the world view underlying some progressive support for Obamacare.

Insufficient interest in future innovation. Emanuel is concerned that, even if he lives longer than 75, he is likely to be a shadow of his former self. But Emanuel considers the world as it is today, not one that innovation could create when he is 75. Innovation can increase the quality of life as well as longevity. Indeed, if we reap the benefits of the age of genomics and personalized medicine, that medical progress could easily accelerate. Unfortunately, Obamacare may retard that innovation by discouraging investment. It is troubling that one of its architects does not consider the possibilities of transforming our future.

One Size Fits all in Advance.  Emanuel cannot possibly know his condition at 75. Natural aging is the most brutal of bell curves. While some die well before 75 others are possessed of full powers long into old age: Sophocles wrote Oedipus of Colonus at almost 90. At 84, Warren Buffett makes money for investors with the help of his 90 year old Vice-Chairman, Charlie Munger. Emanuel reflects here a common stance of enthusiasts for government impositions– an indifference to difference. In fact, one problem with Obamacare is that it forces standard insurance plans onto people, regardless of their different situations.

The Nature of our Humanity. Most troubling of all is Emanuel’s dismissal of the value of living even when frail or sick, not only for the individuals themselves but for those around them. By emphasizing the greater productivity of the young, he comes troublingly close to the old progressives who favored eugenics to cut down on people regarded as not socially valuable, or even to certain modern progressives, like Richard Dawkins, who argued that moral duty compels the abortion of babies with Down syndrome.

But youth and good health do not measure humanity. Millions in diminished health enjoy life, being with their relatives, laughing at old movies, even just sitting in the breeze and sunshine. And their relatives and friends enjoy being with them. Indeed, they may find in the elderly’s struggle with aging an inspiration and a reaffirmation of life. In caring for the frail, weak and sometimes woebegone, they may also expand their own sympathies and express some small measure of gratitude for the debt of a good upbringing that can never be fully repaid.

That is certainly my experience watching my parents age well past 75. I have never admired my father more than when at the cusp of ninety he faces down his own infirmities and cares for my mother who has Parkinson’s disease. And although much is taken from my mother, much abides—her concern for others, her delight in reading new novels and rereading old ones. Emanuel argues that in seeing the decline of those we love, we may forget our happy memories of them in their years of vigor and achievement. But those memories do not need to summoned at particular times, because they infuse my being. In any event, the most valuable memories of all are not defined by physical wellbeing but by spirit and character. For so many people beyond 75 the forging of character continues and the power of their spirit at their end will instruct us by example at our own.

John O. McGinnis

John O. McGinnis is the George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law at Northwestern University. His book Accelerating Democracy was published by Princeton University Press in 2012. McGinnis is also the coauthor with Mike Rappaport of Originalism and the Good Constitution published by Harvard University Press in 2013 . He is a graduate of Harvard College, Balliol College, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He has published in leading law reviews, including the Harvard, Chicago, and Stanford Law Reviews and the Yale Law Journal, and in journals of opinion, including National Affairs and National Review.

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Comments

  1. gabe says

    September 22, 2014 at 12:41 pm

    John:

    Very nice piece – beautiful in fact.

    Ezekeiel is an execrable creature – so assured in his “knowing” – a self righteous little prig who ought to take a look around him and see that a number of his hero’s supporters are well over 75 yrs of age – Warren Buffett for one is 84 and Buffett’s own little in house wizard is 90 yrs old.
    (Not to mention our own R. Richard who has put in a few years. What would this site be like with out his informed comments?).

    You are uite right about the left’s unwillingness or inability to envision progress / advances in medical technology. It appears that the only “progress” our Regressive Party friends are capable of imagining is their own progress in assuming ever greater control over the lives of we, poor bumbling surplus, government revenue absorbing creatures.

    Ah, Ezekiel, you are approaching the age when you should be screened for colon cancer. should you choose to “absorb” government revenues and have this screening test, may the technician fail to apply lubricant to the TRT (trans-rectal transducer).

    Reply
    • gabe says

      September 22, 2014 at 12:50 pm

      BTW: Raquel Welch at 74 yrs old does not look all that bad!!!!

      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/09/why_ezekiel_emanuel_is_evil_and_a_fool_illustrated_edition.html

      Reply
  2. Alan Robertson says

    September 23, 2014 at 3:40 pm

    A very thoughtful essay, especially for those of us in our twilight years. That family loves to wreck havoc on this very wonderful nation…..It’s a travesty…I’m looking forward to many more productive periods, maybe a decade or so before giving up. As long as the brain is working, the challenge and variety of day to day living is stimulating and exciting.
    Al Robertson

    Reply

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