Speech Delivery by Ambassador J. Kenneth Blackwell

Mexico City

September 25, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

It is a privilege to be here and to discuss such important and timely topics.  As some of you may know, I used to represent the United States as the Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.  And while Geneva may sound like a plush job, I often left the halls of the Palais des Nations with an overwhelming sense of sadness.  Mary Ann Glendon is going to talk later this weekend about the abuse of "rights" talk, and that is precisely what I witnessed on a day to day basis.  Countries using a human rights mechanism to advance malicious and deceitful aims.  I had hoped after my tenure that the reforms that went into place in Geneva might rectify the inefficiencies and abuse, but I am afraid that political expediency still trumps human dignity at the UN.  One such issue that has taken the world by storm is the "defamation of religions" issue.   

Washington, DC - Today some of the largest multiracial, multiethnic, and multigenerational faith-based and policy organizations in the country, representing more than 30 million people, gathered in the Nation's capital to discuss healthcare reform and to mobilize their constituents regarding this national debate.

We believe social justice includes healthcare reform that lowers the cost, increases quality, and expands choice at the greatest convenience, without moving private health decisions from the doctor's office to Washington bureaucrats. Individual liberties trump government-imposed obligations. We believe that individuals, communities, and doctors in the free market make better health decisions than government mandates. We believe in incentives, not coercion.

A National Health Service Healthcare Commission report found that up to 1,200 people may have died needlessly at a Mid-Staffordshire hospital because of pressure for the Trust, which administers the hospital, to meet government-mandated targets.

Here are a few examples uncovered by the report as cited in the London Telegraph:

Headline: NHS targets may have lead to 1,200 deaths in Mid-Staffordshire

• overstretched and poorly trained nurses who turned off equipment because they did not know how to work it" 
• "newly qualified doctors left to care for patients recovering from surgery at night" 
• "patients left for hours in soiled bedclothes" 
• "reception staff expected to judge the seriousness of the conditions of patients arriving at A&E (ER)" 

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health adviser to President Barack Obama, is under scrutiny. As a bioethicist, he has written extensively about who should get medical care, who should decide, and whose life is worth saving.

Dr. Emanuel is part of a school of thought that redefines a physician’s duty, insisting that it includes working for the greater good of society instead of focusing only on a patient’s needs. Many physicians find that view dangerous, and most Americans are likely to agree.

RE: Costly lawsuit abuses drive up medical expenses and add billions of dollars to the cost of healthcare, but provide only marginal assistance to injured patients.  Yet Congress refuses to address this problem or to make it part of meaningful healthcare reform. Concerned citizens need to raise the issue with Members of Congress and insist it be addressed in any health care reform legislation.

Washington, DC - Today a federation of some of the largest faith-based and policy organizations in the country weighed in on the national health care debate. United in their adherence to core values expressed in the Declaration of American Values, these multiethnic, multiracial, and transgenerational organizations affirm the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death and agree that any health care policy must protect human life.

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel:

"Abortion is not health care and rushing the ill and aged to their grave is immoral. As a society treats the most vulnerable among us in the womb, it will similarly treat the aged and the ill. Any health care policy or proposal must not fund abortion and must protect those with debilitating or terminal illness and the elderly. Human life is sacred because we are made in the image of God and are endowed by our Creator with the inalienable right to life. Government must protect human life. Life, no matter how young, is not expendable and, no matter how ill or aged, is not to be weighed on a cost-benefit scale. Any health care policy that destroys our freedom and does not protect human life is unacceptable."
Johnny Hunter, DD, Director & Founder of Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN):

For most Members of Congress, the month of August is typically a time to relax, unwind and catch up on reading while taking a break from the humidity of Washington, D.C. Unfortunately for them, this isn't a typical August.

Before heading home to their congressional districts, Members of Congress sparked a fierce debate on how best to reform our country's health care system. And in town hall meetings across the country, the frustration is palpable. Americans are upset that lawmakers seem to be rushing to overhaul our country's health care system without carefully considering the potential costs -- or the real possibility that this could open the door for an even more intrusive federal government.

July 31, 2009 
The House of Representatives remains in pitched battle over health care reform. Three different House committees have been working on a draft. In its current form the bill is extremely disturbing. This analysis points out some of the most distressing aspects of the bill, but certainly not all of them. The information is arranged under three headings: Sanctity of Human Life, Increased Costs and Taxes, and Increased Bureaucracy and Intrusiveness. Any one of these three areas is enough to garner opposition. When combined, they lead to the unavoidable conclusion that H.R. 3200 is extremely dangerous legislation to the health and wellbeing of most Americans.