Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 04-07-26_TUESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Morning news and conversation then Dr. Mark Mostert, PhD from Able America discusses why America has been turned into such a death cult. It all starts with assisted suicide...

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The Bill Meyer Show on Southern Oregon's home for conservative talk. News Talk 1063, KMED. Call Bill at 541-770-5633. That's 770 KMED. Now more with Bill Meyer. Okay, got a little slug of coffee in me. let's hit the phones. It's pebble in your shoe Tuesday, 7705633-3-7-O-K-M-E-D.

And we're going to have some great conversation this morning, even some philosophical conversation. You know, it seems to be a lot of focus on the United States or turning the United States into a death cult of sorts, whether it's, you know, assistance in dying, or, you know, maybe they really shouldn't live whatsoever. Don't have children. You know, where did this comfort?

from. Where did this come from? And a little bit later this hour, I'm going to be talking with Dr. Mark P. Mustard. He's a Ph.D. Fellow over at the National Center for Public Policy Research. He has done a 10-part series. And he's with a group called Abel America. And in other words, it representing what we would term disabled people. And he has a very interesting point of view that I wanted to talk with him for a few minutes about that. We're also going to have Kevin Gill from Klauser Drilling. What's it looking like with a pretty dry year here in southern Oregon. And yeah, he's going to join and we're going to talk about the drilling of wells and what's

going on. He was telling me yesterday, he said, oddly enough, that we probably hit more artesian wells recently than we have in recent memory. I'll ask him more about that and what that might be indicating. So it could be good stuff there. Why are Democrats so evil? I guess maybe that's the subtitle of the talk with Herman Barrett-Sigger this morning. We'll have that.

And Mark Ray Kromer, author of California. Twilight. You could almost make a song out of the old Mama's and Papa's song for the 1960s. California Twilight, the end of the Golden State. Yeah, and he's been writing. He's a journalist down there for a long long time. He has some interesting observations. And, of course, my question will be is Oregon just whistling past the graveyard?

You know, that kind of thing. Well, okay, we've got problems, but we're not as bad as California. Well, maybe Oregon's going to hold its pure. I don't know. Let's talk about Don, because it is pebble in your shoe Tuesday. Don, you dropped off a little bit of a paperwork at the radio station the other day, illustrating your energy bill. Is that what I'm looking at this morning? Yes, that's part of the story.

Okay. Let me issue a disclaimer before we start here. I've been an oversampling of this subject, trans relatives, random strangers. Nobody wants to hear this. So are you stuck with this? I don't know. Yeah. What you're looking at is bar graphs, two bar graphs of my properties here, two homes.

Yep. Now, I've had an ongoing problem with Avista utilities over the years. Many people have a Vista here. They're also an electricity provider in the Northwest. That's right, because they run paker plants, right? When the wind, when the wind farms stop working that were forced to pay for through Pacific power. I first started having an issue because this is in the context of see something, say something. Okay, everybody should not be sensitized to that, but be aware that when I had gas bills of $11 and $13 a month,

I started getting visits. These are haphazard random visits from the detectives. This has a fleet of contractors that go around inspecting people's gas. lines. Is it to make sure when they see them at $11 a month that you're not cheating? Yes. Okay. So, so. Well, I don't know. I kind of make sense. You know, people bypass the power the power meters all the time. And so I imagine Pacific Power has to make note of that. People go around the gas lines all the time. It's really dangerous. Don't do that. Oh, come on. Oh, come on. What do you mean? Don't do something that they won't try to steal natural gas just

because it's dangerous? Oh, come on. Come on. So what they've done over the years, I've had seven counter that I know of seven visits from these contractors, and they lie every time. The first one had his little meter out there in my yard. What do you do? Your neighbor's getting gas. We need to check yours. Okay. And it was not true. I checked with my neighbor as a friend, you know. And no, he's not getting gas, never did. Then, most recently, a pair of, of new Jeep liberties in pastel colors, like little gumdrops. A man and a woman in each, they show up. I found him under my eaves in the brush there.

So what are you doing in there? I'm changing the battery in your meter. So how stupid do I look? That uses RFID technology. There is no battery in there, Bill. You knew that. All right. now, I'm wondering if it, well, it uses, it has to be interrogated, those. There has to be a

source of power. It could be the flow of the gas generating electricity for the meters. It's at some point. It's RFID. Yeah, it's RFID, but it doesn't have just power on its own. It does have to have some kind of a power source in order to read, even if it's interrogated by a transmitter. It gets better. Because five days later, same fellow. I find him in the brush against. What are you doing back in her? I lost my phone when I was here.

Let me call it. Oh, it's dead. I tried that. It's dead. So they're lying every time. Seven visits. What I've called the Vist, I've called them seven times. Surely you're paying out, what, 80 bucks a visit.

All right. So let me ask you on this property, what do you use of Vista's natural gas for, if you don't might be prying? Well, there's a water heater. 40 gallon. Okay. And matter of fact, I had it off. I can go up to 13 days with it turned down to idle because it holds heat for days. You can take it down. So they're suspicious of you because you're not matching the energy use of someone else of an equivalency, but you're cheap, right? Yeah, so, got it. I'm frugal. I'm frugal. Frugal. Pardon me, frugal. That sounds better than cheap. All right.

Here's where this is going. If you look at the graph on top, that's to the house next door. It also has a gas water heater, a gas furnace. The house has been unoccupied slash empty for over two years. Nobody's using gas. And yet, if you look at the graphs, they parallel in usage month by month. You see how it, the bar graphs. Oh, yeah, it's the same bar graphs like what Pacific Power gives you your monthly, your monthly usage. Okay. And that way you can compare it to like a year prior. Medford Water does the same thing. They all do the same thing, right? It's a lie.

There's no gas being used there, zero gas, and yet they're still charging because now they charge you in therms instead of cubic feet. Because a therm is more theoretical, because when you have a cubic, it can be more or less energy because of density, like temperature density. Okay. See, now you're going to lose a lot of people on this. So you're claiming that you're being ripped off by a vista. for energy that you did not use, all right? Have you considered just going to a heat pump and just sticking with Pacific power? That's not the issue.

This is a public utility. I've gone to the Oregon Utilities Commission on Commerce Street in Salem. Well, that's a public utility. We don't care. It says no. The bottom line is they're paying $80 a pot times seven that they visited. And that gives plausible. deniability to a vista because it's not them, it's the subcontractor.

Okay, well, this is what I'm going to suggest for you, since you're concerned because of Vista's contractors keep visiting your property under various pretexts. It sounds like of trying to either read your meter, replace the battery in the meter, I lost my phone, buy the meter, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, it sounds a little sketchy. Now, obviously, they're looking to get more money out of you. So why don't you just have some fun? just set up a huge fire pit in the backyard and let it burn for a day or two.

They'll see the gas usage go up for a day or two, and then they'll kind of leave you alone. How about that? It's not about me. It's about my neighbors here and in Oregon with a public utilities commission that couldn't care less because the entire public sector is ultra-specialized, and it doesn't fall in their niche, their definition of... No, I get it. But so since when did you actually think that the Oregon Public Utility Commission cared about Oregonians?

I believe. I'm a true believer. You're a funny guy. They're cheating. They're losing. I mean, they're charging every month, and it follows the seasonal usage of terms. Well, no, they're going to charge you every month for service one way or the other. It doesn't matter if you use nothing, if buckets, you're still going to get a service charge.

Maybe they make that the equivalent of a term. I don't know. But I'll try to reach out to a vista and actually see what the racket is. Okay? Because there's no – oh, thanks, Bill. Thank you. No, I'll do my best. I don't know what else I can say.

I'm looking at it. Yeah, you're not using any energy, but yet, you know, even if it's on pilot, you've got – You got a pilot light there? What? It's a boring topic. I'm sort of – No, I'm actually kind of fascinated with it just because you have dug so deep into this, like a dog with a bone, like a pit bull.

I don't want to pay for something. I'm not getting, is what I'm saying, okay? Now, come on. That's not the American way. You have to bend down to the rackets, the medical industry, the electric power rackets, the natural gas rackets. It's all there. The fuel rackets. The war rackets. Don, pay your share. Just be happy. Be proud to be an American because at least you know you're free. Okay. By defense stocks, okay? Yep. I agree wholeheartedly. That's going to be a bull market. Oh, man. 705633. See, that's a pebble in your shoe Tuesday. That's his big pebble. That's a boulder, I guess. A vista keeps bothering him, I guess. Hi, good morning. KMEDE. Who's this? Hey, Bill. It's Vicki from the Applegate. Vicki. Just an update. My husband's home, he's good. They just put a stint in, and he has to change his diet and take meds, a couple of the meds for the rest of his life. But he's alive. He's, I mean, he's, it's amazing. Okay, so they took care of the heart attack issue. He's good.

You're going to have the change his diet. What is it going to be like celery water for the rest of his life? What are they saying? Well, I've been with him 38 years, and he's probably eaten enough candy to fill the city dump. I mean, he is a sugar addict. Oh, no. Oh, this is going to be rough. Out of all of it, that's the toughest part is not to be able to have the sugar.

Yeah. Now, sugar is a tough one. That is a, by the way, it's also a tough addiction. The reason why they call it a sweet tooth, you know. It's almost as bad as anything else, really. I mean, for him. And he's always been really lean. You know, when the ambulance came to our doctor's office,

they're like looking for an overweight, sweaty, you know, person who's having a heart attack. And my husband's standing there all mussely and in good shape. And they're like, okay, we're here to pick up the patient. Where is it? Where is he? And they pointed towards my husband, and they're like, he's having a heart attack. Yeah.

Well, you know what you might want to do here in a way? Have you talked about maybe getting to – are you on Medicare or still private insurance? He has – we have OHP. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, I get that then. We're really low – I mean, we're really low income, so we have OHP. Thank God, because there's no way I could, I mean, we couldn't have paid. Yeah, so you really mean that.

What I was trying to say is if there's any way that you can talk with any kind of a specialist that can work on the inflammation, because from the sounds of it, he's really lean, so it's not the standard fat, you know, kind of stereotype like you talk about it. You know, kind of like, you know, walking into the hospital. I get that. I get that. He totally changed his diet, like, overnight. Well, that's good. That's good.

It's going to need that discipline. But what I was going to suggest, though, if it's at all possible, talk with a, gosh, if there's a way you can scrape up a buck or two on a natural path and have them look at anti-inflammatory. Because, you know, obviously, you know, what he's dealing with is, you know, they always try to tell you in the conventional doctor world. And this is just my opinion, though. Always that, you know, that the reason that you have high cholesterol is a lack of statin in your body, like some. how statin is a natural part of breathing. And in the medical world these days, it seems to be this way. A lot of money, you know, comes out of that. But the issue is inflammation and the cholesterol plaque ends up being deposited as a result because of, at least this is the way

naturopaths have explained it to me, because of the inflammation and that it is a symptom of another problem, not the problem is what I was getting at, you know? Right. And so if there's a, if there's a possible way that maybe you could go talk, and the natural path seem to be pretty good at narrowing focus on to something like that. I just giving you a suggestion for your hubby. Yeah, we've Googled a bunch of stuff about the foods, which feeds actually pistachios. I thought they were really fattening and not good for you, but they're actually very good for you. And raisins are not. So that's just sugar. It's just fruit sugar is all it is. So, hey, all the best. to your hubby. I'm glad he's going to be okay. I'm glad you're okay this morning. So that's less

of a pebble than everyone's shoe. How about that? Okay. Well, thank you, Bill. All right, thanks. Thanks, Bickey. You know, I didn't get a chance to ask her if maybe the Vista people were going around and spying on her while they were gone. It's 24 after 6. Everyone deserves to grow old with respect. Slash Wellness. That's C.H. Ministries.org slash wellness. Hi, I'm Deb with Father and Son Jewelry and I'm on KMED. 627, time for a Senator Jeff Merkley update. Oh, tiptoe through the tulips.

So what's the Merck up to this day? Senator Jeff Merckley and 45 plus lawmakers. Renew push for wealth tax on ultra-millionaires and billionaires. Of course, I'm going to say it. I have to say it like Senator Bernie Sanders, right? Ultra millionaires and billionaires. He's the billionaires. Oregon, U.S. Senator Jeff Murkley joins a bicameral group,

45 lawmakers, to reintroduce the Ultra Millionaire Tax Act, the legislation that would apply a wealth tax to fortunes above $50 million. According to a new analysis, the bill would generate 6.2 trillion in revenue over the next decade. It's about $600 million a year. That's enough money to pay for investments like universal child care. Oh, boy. Yeah, that's really what we need. We need more people dropping their kids off for the government to take care of when they're little tiny kids.

But any, free community college, Medicare expansions, that's more Oregon health plan, and so much more without raising taxes on 99.85% of American households. This is what Jeff says. For too long, a handful of ultra-millionaires and billionaires have watched their fortune soar while working families struggle to keep up with the cost of living. It's time to restore the basic promise that everyone pays their fair share in our economy works for all, not just the wealthiest few, according to Merkley. The ultra-millionaire tax is a straightforward solution. So what would happen is that there would be a 2% annual tax on the net worth of households and trusts valued at over 50 million. So they just send you a bill for 2% of what it's worth every year.

An additional 1% annual surtax, 3% total tax on the net worth of households and trusts above a billion. So 3% a year on the worth. It's not about the profit on something. It's not about the worth of something. Which is, wow, okay. When you think about this, oh, by the way, there would be a 40% exit tax. If you were trying to leave the United States of America, the billionaire would then have to pay 40% of it to the federal government. And I would dare say that if this passes, believe me, if you think we have lots of billionaires and millionaires wanting to leave the country right now, they will head for the exits.

Because essentially what that means is that it's not a matter if you have money coming in. if you have stocks and bonds, unrealized gains, things that are sitting in accounts, things that are sitting in trusts, if it goes up, you would have to pay a certain percentage of it. So you would have to sell it. You would have to sell stuff every year in order to pay for your ultra-millionaire's tax or ultra-millionaire and billionaires tax. So, needless to say, now, believe me, I would dare say that if you really wanted to solve. some problems, Jeff. Eliminate the whole concept of foundations. Eliminate the nonprofit foundations, as far as I'm concerned. You know, the big grifts where the millionaires and the billionaires end up hiring all their family and they shove all of their stuff into the, into the

foundations, into the trust, like the Clinton Foundation, for example, that's one. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that sort of thing. Why don't you get rid of that? Why don't you change that part of the tax code so the money just has to do something productive? Rather than, funding leftist causes, but that's just my opinion. All right, it's 6.30. That's what Jeff is up to this morning. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Good morning, Bill.

Hi. Professional driver, and I've got a pebble in my shoe. All right, professional driver from Eagle Point. Watch the pebble. Go ahead. Well, it's the cost of fuel. It's ridiculous. It needs to be down around $2 a gallon so people can buy cars and do things, you know, and just see the growth.

Oh, you're a silly man. You actually think that... I don't work on that. You actually... No, you actually think that the elite are really concerned about us not moving around. I'm sure that there are many in the elite that are actually really happy about this. Well, you know, I have a friend at Biomast, and I have to go talk to them, and, you know, that's where our energy comes from, most of it.

People don't realize that, but it's true. and it's great the byproduct with carbon fiber because I'm working on a 250 mile an hour road racing car. I know it sounds crazy right. GTP car I've been working on. So I'm going to work on that with Colleen Roberts a bit if she can kind of come up with some ideas. I'm helping her on her campaign. Very good. So I appreciate you being there, Bill.

Yeah, well, I'll say do not put Commissioner Roberts, though, in your 250-mile. an hour test car, though, okay? Well, we're going to start with a 20 mile an hour on my little, I have a little dirt track. Much better. Much better. Yeah, 250 miles an hour. Do not put the conservative county commissioner in that, you know? No matter how much the campaign begs, all right?

All right. All right. Thank you, Scott. Yikes. Hi, KMED. Good morning. This is Bill. Good morning, Bill.

Hey, you know about the tax of billionaires, millionaires? You know, that's a direct violation of the Tenth Commandment or in the Ten Commandments about not coveting the things that belong to your neighbor. You're implying, though, that Jeff Merckley is a godly man, though. How so? No, you're implying. You know, you think that maybe Jeff Merckley worries about being a godly man and worrying about coveting someone else's wealth.

the only reason to exist in Congress is to covet someone else's wealth because you can do so much better with it. I'm being sarcastic, Tom. You didn't understand. Yeah, well, I would call him ungodly since he's violating the, you know, the commandments. You know, and I really think Western civilization is contingent upon the Ten Commandments. You know, don't kill, don't, why don't cheat, don't steal, and don't covet. What do you think about my situation? though, if you're really concerned about wealth being hidden away, and, you know, like, it sounds like Merkley is, wouldn't getting rid of the foundations, the foundation rackets that mostly push things to the left here in this country, wouldn't that be a better way going about it?

I think the whole tax, everything, you know, for myself, I think the income tax should be abolished. I think everything should be put on a sales tax. I know, I'm against all. taxation but then I think at least intrusive and abusive of people is the sales tax so in other words a value-added tax kind of thing like what Europe has that what you're not necessarily that involves some studying so forth but my my view would be that you wouldn't tax food and you wouldn't tax you know the real basic necessities of life but everything beyond that including transactions in the stock market. Can you imagine if you just had even a half of a percent of every time something

moves in the stock market, half of a percent would go to, you know, taxation. That alone would take care of everything. Of course, the foundation should be abolished. I think the whole tax system from local to federal needs to be totally revamped. Yeah, I'll agree, I will agree with you on that. As far as taxing every transaction, I don't know, if you tax every transaction just because it's based on the value of the stock, there are times, of course, I do trade some stocks occasionally on my little baby 401K. And the thought that if I'm losing money on something that I have to pay money on the loss to the United States when I already would have to pay money if I withdraw it, I don't know. I don't know about that, Tom. Well, I think that the whole situation needs to be studied from top to bottom. what we have right now with the insanity of the income tax right now,

basically everyone in the country is subject to both prosecution and persecution because no one can never do that 100% correctly and so forth, because it's so psychotic and convoluted and so forth. And essentially we're considered guilty until proven innocent. All right. Tom, good point. I thank you. Let me consult that.

Let me think about that a little bit about what that tax system might look like, okay? Thanks for the call. We'll catch up on the rest of the news here in just a moment. And then a 10-part series, why should they live? Why is it the United States seems to be so favorable to the death cults of today? I'm going to talk with Dr. Mark Mustard here just a bit. Saving money has never been easier. At my Oregon Edeals.com, you can purchase gift cards and gift certificates at a discounted price and save big money at your favorite local businesses. From dining to shopping and so much more. Every deal has. helps your dollar go further. My Oregon Edeals.com is perfect for gift giving as well.

Best of all, your gift cards are shipped right to your mailbox. New offers are added often, so check back frequently. Put money back in your pocket by visiting my Oregon Edeals.com and start saving today. This is Bill Meyer, and if you want to save money on your cell phone plan like Linda and I did, we cut our bill in half with Cherise at No Wires Now. That's right, Bill. Come on down to our showroom or call me today. I'll show you how I can save you money and provide you the best, local service featuring the largest selection of TV, internet, and cell phone plans.

Put Charisse to work for you now. At No Wires Now, call or text 541-680-5875. We're stopped by the showroom, 1560 Biddle Road, Sweet B and Metford, nowiresnow.com. KMED News, here's what's going on. Nobody hurt, but the Lions Club building on Redwood Highway and Cave Junction was damaged by fire. The call came in around 1130 Sunday from a person in a nearby food truck, Illinois Valley, Rural Metro fire units responded and saw smoke coming from the eaves and roofline. They went in, put the fire out. The building still stands, but the interior is severely damaged. As President

Trump's deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz approaches, fuel prices continue to rise in Southern Oregon. AAA Oregon reporting the statewide average of the price of a gallon in Oregon, five bucks. In Jackson County, it's $5.15. Josephine County, 522. The real hurt, diesel, currently at an average of $6.28 per gallon in the state. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports those rising diesel prices, squeezing Oregon farmers and could continue for a while even after the Iran War concludes. Well, many farmers bought her lock in the price for their fuel or fertilizer months ago before the war began when prices were much lower.

Some have not. They're already feeling the pitch. Other growers worrying that if the conflict continues and prices keep rising and stay high, that could bring challenges for next year's growing season. And even with high fuel prices, nipping budget, some of the best fun in Southern Oregon remains free this upcoming weekend. You're speaking of Pear Blossom Festival Friday and Saturday in Medford. Street Bears runs and, of course, capped off with Saturday mornings parade in downtown Medford starting at 11. Bill Meyer, KMED News.

Don't Portland's Southern Oregon. What works for Portland politicians doesn't work here, and I won't let them force it on us. I'm Duayne Younger, your Oregon State representative from Joseph. County and Grants Pass in Salem, Southern Oregon is a minority, and that's why my most important job I have isn't passing more mandates. It's being a strong voice, pumping the brakes on bad legislation. I help leave the fight to protect your right to vote on the gas tax, because politicians shouldn't raise your cost of living without your consent. That fight is saving the average Southern Oregon family about $500 a year. Next term, my job is clear.

to protect taxpayers, hold Salem accountable, and keep more of your money in your pocket. I'm Dwayne Yonker, and I always stand up for Josephine County at home and in Salem. I'd be honored to earn your vote. Paid for Yonker for State Representative, Pack ID 230701. It's the Bill Meyer Show on KMED, Southern Oregon's Place to Talk. A very thought-provoking 10-part series has just opened up. I think they're part 1, two, and three are up there right now. The National Center for Public Policy Research.

And it's written by Dr. Mark P. Mastard, Ph.D., it's a senior researcher for ABLE Americans, National Center for Public Policy Research. Dr. Mostert, it's a pleasure having you on. Welcome, sir. Bill, thanks so much. Glad to be with you. Tell me what your researching is all about at the National Center. Yeah, this particular branch of research involves what we now

today in Oregon and several other U.S. states and across Europe as assisted suicide and euthanasia. Right. The idea that when people, you know, are in medically very dire circumstances, the debate has been about should we allow them to ask to kill themselves or should we be able to kill them, the difference, of course, between assisted suicide and euthanasia. What people do not know is that these laws and policies and attitudes and ideologies did not just spring upon us, you know, when Oregon legalized this in 1997. There's a whole entire context behind that as to how we got to that point. And basically, 30,000-foot view is that

many years ago, people with disabilities were looked upon as second, third, and fourth-class citizens, and were treated as such. They were treated in a distinctly different way than people who were able-bodied. We like to think we're so in. that we don't do that anymore, but we do. And one of the places we see this discrimination is against people with medical disabilities and the whole assisted suicide and euthanasia idea. Now, is there a difference in your mind here between euthanasia? As an example, I know that people could just say you're feeling badly and show up at a clinic, let's say, I think in Canada, I remember reading some stories about this recently, and, oh, you're depressed or you've got a problem,

mentally ill, you're not going to be able to make it, life's not worth living here. Take the sleepy shot, right? You know, that kind of thing. Is that the stuff that really is going on in other countries right now? It is going on. Yeah, and it started, you know, was bubbling up here in the late 90s, but it was also bubbling up in Europe. And so the two countries that we look to as what can happen with this stuff are the Netherlands

and Belgium. And they started out, as Oregon does, with saying we have very strict rules about assisted suicide. There's no law okaying euthanasia at this point, as there is in Europe. So basically saying, look, to take Oregon's example, we understand that some people don't want to live when they medically ill. And we understand that they have patient autonomy. If they request to commit suicide, we should help them as a medical profession. And so the idea of assisted suicide is the person who wants to die, the patient, then asks somebody else to provide them with the means of committing suicide.

Now, do you have an issue with that, Dr. Monster, as far as a moral view of society on this, that, all right, I'm dying of cancer, great pain, et cetera, et cetera, and I'm just going to shock the mortal coil. I'm just going to let nature take its course. Or do you have any issue when the state is stepping in with rules and regs and say, hey, let us help you? Where are you coming from? Well, both.

Yeah, both. Yeah, first of all, because on a personal level, what we do know is that there are countless cases, and this has been researched extensively, where people who want to commit assisted suicide, if there are other issues aren't managed, many times they do not then want to commit suicide. So the first issue we have is are we providing all the support we can to people who are seriously or terminally ill to ease their pain, to keep them comfortable? and most importantly, to make them feel wanted that they are members of society and members of our families, irrespective of their medical disability. So, yeah, I do, that's the personal. I do have a moral problem with that, and a bigger moral problem, of course, is when the government gets involved. Because as we all know, when the government gets involved, things really go well.

And that's the case of the suicide. By the way, that's brilliant sarcasm, by the way, doctor. Yeah, I mean, you know, so in Oregon, for example, there's a short. strict guidelines, right? You have to be over the age of 18. You have to be terminally ill within six months of dying. Two doctors have to sign off on it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But what happened is over time, those guardrails fall away. And that's exactly what's happened in Canada. Canada started out with exactly the same set of criteria as Oregon has, which is, you know, you must be 18, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then, as you said, it started to expand. So first of all,

it was no longer for people who were terminally ill. If you had some serious illness, even though it could be managed, that was available to you. And then, of course, they introduced euthanasia, which is the direct medical killing of a patient. Right. And now in the Netherlands, you can request euthanasia and be euthanized for almost any possible thing that's wrong in your life. If you're depressed, if you're a psychotic. Yeah, you had a bad date, a bad experience, and you think there's nobody that will ever love you. Boy, just go down to the euthanasia, the euthanasia hub.

Is that kind of what's going on? That's exactly what's right, and that's what's starting to happen in Canada. Started with the strict guidelines, and now it's pretty much open season. And in other countries, too, in Spain two weeks ago, they euthanized a 26-year-old person, a woman, who basically had some kind of neurological pain, neuropathy going on that was not managed medically. 26 years old with a medical condition that absolutely could be controlled, she requested it, her family fought it, they lost, and at 26 years old, she died. There's another case out of Canada, 25-year-old, blinding one eye and depressed, euthanized.

And here's the part that most concerns me. The medical profession has now taken this on as a quote-unquote, legitimate and effective medical practice. Yep, you heard that right. Now part of medicine is killing people to make them feel better. Well, let me just oppose maybe a different way of looking at it where some may come from, all right? Sure. At what point is it up to you to care more of your, to care more about your life than other people should have to? You see where I'm coming from on something like this and that we should do everything possible to preserve someone who doesn't give a darn about wanting to be here?

on the planet, and I'm supposed to, you know, put a lot of effort into this. What would you say to that? I think you'd have people come to you with that kind of concern. It's the autonomy argument, right? It's my body, my choice kind of argument. Yeah. Well, we already have provision for that that is morally acceptable by almost everybody, and that is you as a patient have the perfect right at any point in your treatment

or in your life to refuse medical treatment. Absolutely have that right. And if you say, for example, you're 74, you have serious cancer ailments, etc., you're very, very, very medically disabled, right? If you say, look, I'm done with treatments, keep me comfortable until I die, that's absolutely acceptable. Nobody argues that point. The argument comes when other people are getting involved in you die. That becomes the issue. For example, once these medications are approved by the two doctors approving of the assisted suicide, people do.

just go to their pharmacies and pick that up. There's no supervision after that as to what happens. So in Oregon, for example, you have, I don't know, four and a half, five thousand applications that have been okayed and people have gotten them as. But far fewer than that have actually committed suicide, having been assisted by the medical profession. So it's fair. Could it be that some have changed their mind and decided not to go through with it or even maybe died before they could do it? That's exactly right. So not everyone that gets it uses it. And the question I would pose is, well, why don't we talk to those people and find out why they change their minds? We already have some clues.

The first clue is that when you manage people's medical disabilities or their psychological disabilities, they tend not to want to die. That's just a fact, right? Not everybody, I agree. But a lot of people say, hey, you know, that intractable pain I had, I still get it occasionally, but it's managed very well. I'm on good men. I don't feel like I want to kill myself.

The reason I wanted to do that was I was in so much pain. The other part is with depression, particularly there's very strong evidence that when people's depression is taken care of, they no longer request assisted suicide or euthanasia as much as they would have and they remained untreated. So basically there's a lot we can do to alleviate people's suffering and not make them feel like they're a burden on society, not to make them feel like they're going to, you know. Doctor? Financial, et cetera. Oh, okay. Dr. Mark P. Mustard with me this morning.

Doctor, I wanted to just kind of float something at you that I've kind of wondered. The one thing I've noticed is that every time I go to the doctor, which is like about once a year, I don't go very often. It's just kind of like you go meet the imaginary friend. You got to say hi to the cardiologist, whatever. Yeah, that kind of thing. I've noticed that there has been a huge push everywhere, my mother, everybody else that goes in there. What's your end of life plan? Right.

What do you want us to do? Is this the government at some point looking to be able to off a few more people? Because let's just face it, there are not unlimited resources in the medical world, and especially as we age, we're just looked at as, well, an entry on the balance sheet, aren't we? Is there like an incentive out there to move us along, shuck the coil? Yeah. The Nazis called those people useless eaters. people who were consuming resources but couldn't produce any for the good of society, right?

And so that's exactly what we have now. So the whole idea of being a second-class citizen, of being, yeah, you're different, et cetera, et cetera, plays in. Your question about going to the doctor and having these questions asked is because the medical profession in training doctors is now absolutely infested with this idea that it's easier to kill you than to keep you alive. Absolutely. Give you an example. In Canada, a woman went into the ER two weeks ago. She fell in her home. She broke her tailbone. She broke her coxics. Now, we break your pocket. That's pretty painful. Pretty painful. Yeah. It's pretty painful. It's like, you know, stopping your little stone breaking it. There's really no treatment for it except, you know, be careful how you walk and sit down and take some pain meds and you'll be fine in a month. That's the basic medical prognosis, right? The first question the doctor asked her in Canada was, you know, you always have the opportunity of euthanasia. And it's that level of coercion and government overreach that makes me most of you. Okay, I just want to be sure that I heard you correctly, Doctor.

So you're saying that in Canada, the woman breaks her tailbone, goes in, and the first thing they say is not how to we treat this, but would you like euthanasia? They didn't say, would you like it? You understand that that's one of your options. Oh. And the credulous was saying, wait a minute. Yeah, it hurts, but what? But that's the coercion that comes with it.

There are untold stories of people with disabilities, medical disabilities, being given that as an option. And then it becomes not only are you given the option, but you're almost kind of suggested to that that's what should happen because it'll be better for your family. They'll be better off. You won't be a burden to them, et cetera, et cetera. Now, on the issue of resources, you're right. There's never enough to go around. I agree with you. And I would also add, and I'm going to bring up something else that I think that is probably driving some of this, doctor. And it has to do with the amazing rise in the

amount of Alzheimer's dementia patients, which are out there, memory care. Incredibly, I know people even right now that are struggling with family members, taking care of them on their own. It's a monumental task in some cases. No question. I could see the, you know, the government doesn't have a memory care bed for all of these people. Right. Is that part of this pushing, this pushing towards the euthanasia? Yes, it is. And generally, when you talk to late people who don't dwell in this stuff like I do,

they say absolutely you'd be better off. You know, basically, if you have dementia, you don't know who you are, you don't remember your family, yeah, let's kill you. They've taken that to the end's degree in the Netherlands where they've euthanized people and someone said, wait a minute, one of your requirements is that you have to be in your right mind to request euthanasia. Fair enough, right? As they do in Oregon. And the doctor said, well, if she had been in her right mind and known she was going to live like this, she would have asked for it anyway. So that's the level of coercion where now

we are making decisions for people irrespective of what they want, or if they're in a situation where they can't make up their mind, their mind's basically gone. But, Dr. couldn't that have been true what that person would have said? And I'm talking about, you know, if you were to talk to most people, if they knew they were going to be an insane burden on their family, most would vote for euthanasia in spite of that. So wouldn't you agree with that or not? They might, but, you know, think about it this way. If you said, you know, I'm of no use to anyone. I don't want to be a burden to my family. If we had enough resource, say, well, you don't have to be a burden. We have resources to help you. And this is where

the hospice movement is doing wonderful work, although they are now getting in. traded by this protest idea. Oh, so the hospice group is about trying to take you out sooner rather than later, you're thinking? That's, it's not quite that way yet, but we are seeing this idea creeping into hospices where people are starting to be slightly coercive. It's not a big deal yet, but it is there, the Senate of the West, so to speak. So the resource issue is very, very complex. But people have already addressed that. Okay, Cass Dunstein, who worked in the government for a while, who's a very well-known lawyer, whatever. He wrote a paper in 2015 saying, yeah, we don't have the medical resources. And so what we need to do is allocate resources only to the people where we're going to get our best bank for the buck.

And he actually came up with a concept called adjusted life quality years. That is, what are the years where you're most productive, you know, in your life? And he came up with a number. From 15 years to 40 years of age are the people where we need to concentrate most medical resources because they are the people who will be most able to have good lives and be productive citizens. Boy, you know, doctor, I'm already expired by 25 years using that, using Cass Sunstein's formula there. Wow. Exactly.

So here's the point. This becomes more and more embedded in the culture. And so the potential for misuse is huge. And it happens all the time. So the question then becomes, well, do we have this and then put stricter guidelines on it? The history says no, because any guidelines that are put there are very soon overridden, and you end up with people being coerced to maybe die, and that I think is a major moral issue that we need to confront.

Dr. Mark P. Mustard, Ph.D., and he's with a National Center for Public Policy Research. In fact, the section you're leading is called Abel Americans. And could you tell us a little bit about that? Because I want to make sure that people know you have a 10-part series. The first three series are out there. Parts of the series are out on the website right now. In fact, you started with the eugenics movement, and that's really the root of this is where you start, isn't it? That's correct, yes.

So, ABLE Americans is one of the four major projects at the National Center for Public Policy Research. And our approach to things is that government is not always the answer to people with disabilities. We need free market solutions. We need more creativity than the government could ever offer us in helping people with disabilities as they go through. through their life with the challenges that they have. So we concentrate very much on the policies in government that affect people with disabilities and how to change them for the better, both within government and even more so out in the private sector.

This particular series, as I mentioned, goes back to the eugenics movement and traces how the eugenics movement basically distinguished some people from others in terms of their worth. And how that then morphed into what the Nazis did. not many people know that they perfected their killing techniques that they used in the camps on their own people with disabilities in the early late 30s, early 40s. And so it just keeps morphing on and on to where now death is an acceptable part of medical treatment and basically killing people is an accepted part of medical treatment. And we need to turn the tight on that.

If you want autonomy to say, I don't want any more treatment, that's absolutely fine. But there's so much potential for misuse that we really need to take a deeper look at this than what we are. This is a 10-part series. The first three parts are out. If you go to one word, able-americans.us, abel-americans.us, you will find the first three and part-fold will be coming up next Monday. Doctor, it's very thought-provoking. I was wanted to ask someone like you, what do you think, what do you think about the Hemlock Society? And the reason I bring this up is that I never saw the need for the state being involved with this, given that the Hemlock Society

seem to help the people who were really motivated to take themselves out. But what do you think? Well, the Hemlock Society is a pro-sicicide and euthanasia organization. It's been around for a while. They found out that that was not a good term to use. So they changed it to now compassion and choices. Oh. They don't call themselves the Hamlock Society any longer? No, no, no. They morphed that into compassionate choices. Oh, great. Such a happy feeling, right? Happy thing. Rather than being Socrates taking the hemlock to kill yourself.

Okay, got it. All right. Yeah. So they basically were very active and are very active, and that's how we started getting the U.S. states to fall like Domino's. The Hemlock Society, now compassionate choices, was the group and the people who pushed that in Oregon, and, of course, it became law in your state in 1997. We now have 12 states plus D.C., the District of Columbia, that allow for assistance

legalized assisted suicide. And in many other states, compassion and choices and similar outfits are pushing this in, currently I think there's about another 15 or 20 states where there's some form of legislation going through the state legislatures to legalize this elsewhere. So it's a full-on battle. They're very well organized. They're very well funded. And they want this basically for death on demand anytime, anywhere for anyone. I think that's where to put it. What do you believe you had mentioned that you were looking for free market solutions to such issues? What is something that comes to mind with this? I mean, what free market death clinics?

I think you just go in and pay your money. I don't mean to be flipping with you, but what does that look like? Well, they already have those death clinics in Switzerland, but anyway, they're ahead of our time. But basically, one of the big ones is we need to put more resources into hospice. hospice generally and the concept of hospice is a fantastic organization. They do wonderful work. We need to put more resources in that. Number two, we need to make sure that when we train medical professionals,

that they are aware of how deeply, as you said, controversial these issues are and take a better look than just being told that this is okay to do. We should do that. I think in state legislatures, we have to oppose whatever we can there. If you disagree with it, you know, go through your conference. Congress people, et cetera. Other parts of the free market, we need to train carers. Okay, a lot of companies that provide home care are very low-paying, that people are not well-trained. We need to pour more money into that and make sure that companies who do that eventually get denied in caring for people with disabilities.

So those are just some of the things we can do, are we doing them? To a certain extent, do we need to do more? Absolutely. All right. Dr. Mark Monster, Ph.D., senior researcher for Abel Americans, that's able-americans. We'll put all the information up and the link to the series. And you'll be putting out a new part of the series each week over the next few weeks. Isn't that right, Doctor? Yes, parts of you will be up next Monday and every Monday thereafter to the conclusion of the series. Yes, please have a look and feel free to send us emails.

We're happy to provide resources if people need them. Thank you very much for the thought-provoking talk. Be well. Take care. Bill, thanks so much. Cheers. Dr. Mark Mustrich.