As a physician I can tell you that the consequences of "choice" in health care are almost always the ability to choose inferior care. Most patients and most physicians, no matter how well meaning or intelligent, can by themselves pick the "best" medical choice. Based on the situation, what is far better is to follow guidelines determined by expert bodies. This is no different than Southwest Airlines; every pilot takes off and lands the same way, every time. That is why they have the best safety record in the business and that is why Kaiser and the VA knock the socks off the private practice world. If you have a certain medical problem you should get a certain treatment, just like in the Army or Kaiser. As the medical evidence changes over time the treatments will surely change, but individual doctors and patients should not have the privilege to choose treatments simply because they think its best. That method produces inferior care and is bankrupting the country. It makes no more sense then letting the passengers vote on how to land the plane.

The difference between a fascist, totalitarian ideology masquerading as a religion that loves death and a true religion that loves life is nicely summed up in Moses's speech to the Jewish people 3500 years ago:

Deuteronomy 30:19-20:
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But every sensible person knows that those passages have not been relevant to either Judaism, or to Christianity, for at least two thousand years.

In Talmudic times Roman soldiers used to amuse themselves by giving Jews the choice of violating some religious law or suffering death. In response to numerous deaths among faithful Jews, the Rabbis developed the doctrine of "pekuach nefesh", in Hebrew, "to save a life". This doctrine states that any Jewish ritual commandment may be violated to save a life. However, natural law prohibitions, such as killing another or rape, must be resisted even to death. So for 2000 years the Hebrew Bible's bloody punishments, like stoning a Sabbath violator or a disrespectful child, have been abrogated. Our Christian brothers have behaved similarly for about 400-500 years (remember the Inquisition and Salem witch trials). So now, instead of burning heretics, Christians might ask them to join another church, or in extreme instances appear on a Christian TV program to denounce the errant individual and his theology. An interesting similarity is that both religions were about 1400 years old before this change began to occur. Our Muslim brothers now cling to that same old idea, discarded by Christians and Jews, that specific religious ideas are more important than human life. Their religion is about 1400 years old. My personal prayer is that they will soon enter that transformational stage that will enable them to understand the true test of any religious idea; if it safeguards and enhances life it is good, if it destroys or diminishes life it is bad. In fact, as recorded in Deuteronomy on the last day of his life, Moses said it well; "Today I set before you life and death, blessings and curses, choose life........"