Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich lent credence Sunday to Sarah Palin's claim that the healthcare reform legislation will create "death panels" to judge end-of-life issues.
"Communal standards, historically, is a very dangerous concept," Gingrich said on ABC's "This Week."
"The America I know and love is not one in which
my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of
Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a
subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society' whether
they are worthy of health care," Palin wrote.
The former vice presidential candidate advocated in her Facebook statement saying "not just no, but hell no" to government-run healthcare.
In defense of Palin's remarks, Gingrich cited an article written by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and a healthcare policy adviser, that suggested the possibility of population control.
"You're asking us to trust turning over power to the government, when there are clearly people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards," Gingrich said.
On CNN Sunday, former DNC Chairman and Vermont Governor Howard Dean dismissed Palin's comments. "About euthanasia, they're just totally erroneous. She just made that up," he said. "Just like the 'Bridge to Nowhere' that she supposedly didn't support.
"There's nothing like euthanasia in the bill. I practiced medicine for a long time, and of course you have to have end of life discussions - the patients want that," Dean said. "There's nothing... euthanasia's not in this bill."
