American Voices On Health Care Reform

The elderly and the incarcerated

"I have been associated with many prison ministries over the last quarter-century. I started teaching Bible lessons at the D.C. prison, Lorton Correctional Complex in Fairfax County, and later at a prison in Stafford, Va. When that facility was closed, I continued to visit and correspond with incarcerated Christian brothers. Currently, I send out a weekly message to about 45 inmates.

"In one of my visits to Coffeewood Correctional Center in Culpeper, Va., I was made aware of a very distressing situation involving an elderly inmate, Richard Cary. I was appalled to hear that this senior citizen's cancer treatments had been stopped. I was told that, as a result, he was in a very weakened condition. I had the opportunity to talk with him on the telephone and told him that I would have the 250 readers of my daily online message pray for him. A few weeks later, I found out that he had been transferred to another facility. I continued to correspond with him until, a few days ago, a letter I had sent to Richard was returned to me with the word 'DECEASED' written on it."

"It's my opinion that authorities thought that continued treatments would be a waste of money on such an elderly person. I suspect that the same lethal cost-effective logic will prevail in a national health care plan."

- Eugene S. McGuire, wisdom4u.wordpress.com

Lessons in the Koran

"The sacredness of life and the responsibility of taking care of all of humanity are central tenets of my faith, Islam. The Quran defines the sacredness of each human life in Chapter 5, verse 32, in which it teaches that to take one innocent life is as bad as if one has taken the lives of all of humanity, and to save one life is as good as if one has saved the lives of all of humanity. Every single life, in the eyes of God, is that sacred.

"In Chapter 17, verse 70, the Quran also teaches that God has honored and dignified the descendants of the first person, Adam. That is, all of us (in humanity). So we are mandated to treat each person with the utmost respect and care, that befitting a creation that God has made sacred and blessed with an inherent honor and dignity.

"Each person matters. We cannot stand by and allow people to suffer and be ill when we have ways to ease their suffering and cure their illnesses. To allow this is to allow an injustice that should not be accepted by people of faith."

- Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin, blog.sojo.net

Pro-life

"Our message has always been clear - Health care must respect and protect human dignity from conception to natural death. In that spirit, coverage for everyone is a moral imperative and a matter of social justice.

"To date, CHA has not endorsed any health care reform bill, but our message to lawmakers is unchanged: Health reform should not result in an expansion of abortion, and it must maintain conscience protections for health care providers who do not want to participate in abortions or other morally objectionable procedures."

- Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association

Promoting spiritual health

"We must realize that when we promote physical health we promote spiritual health. If a man is dying of cancer with no medical care or because of no medical insurance, how can we sleep if we have not tried to execute a health care agenda that will either save his life or prolong his life?"

- The Rev. George E. Holmes, member of the President Barack H. Obama National African-American Clergy Working Group, and former chairman of the Adrian M. Fenty e-Transition Religious Affairs Committee

Our brother's keepers

"From a Christian perspective, it's clear that we are to take care of each other and the sick. Cost-effectiveness just doesn't figure into the biblical formula."

- Dr. Pippa Abston, deacon, United Church of Huntsville in Alabama