Grassley & the “death panels”

"You have every right to fear," U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on August 12, 2009.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley's town hall meeting this morning in Winterset ended with a question from a women who fears the government will start making end of life decisions for the elderly.  Grassley told her she had every right to be fearful. (Neither used the exact phrase "death panels.")  Listen to the exchange.

Here is the transcript of Grassley's response: "I won’t name people in congress, people in Washington, but there’s some people that think it’s a terrible problem that grandma’s laying in the hospital bed with tubes in her and think that there ought to be some government policy that enters into that. I’m just on the opposite. I think that that’s a family and a religious and/or ethical thing that needs to be dealt with and there’s some fear because in the house bill there’s counseling for end of life and from that standpoint, you have every right to fear.  You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life.  You ought to have it done 20 years before you're going to die.  You ought to plan these things out. I don't have any problem with things like living wills, but they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines you're going to pull the plug on grandma."