health care and eugenics

I'm probably going to develop these thoughts into an essay. For now...

About a week ago, I was struck by the combination of:
a.) the greater general rationing implied by the health care reforms proposed by Democrats;
b.) the probable concentration of that increased rationing on the elderly, newborns, and those with "bad" lifestyle choices; and
c.) eugenics

I've written frequently on eugenics-- most notably, in this essay. Yet I had not seen the connection here until recently.

But follow me...

When you combine:
a.) Dr. Emanuel's graph; with
b.) the increasing and important focus on unhealthy lifestyles-- but beyond that, a willingness of the government to intervene strongly; and
c.) a philosophy that has an (implied) ambivalence or excitement toward eugenics, then

...it's a "natural" and likely implication.

Maybe that's the point? Is this a Darwinian emphasis on the healthy and survival of the fittest-- with the frailest, lowest-on-the-utilitarian-pole allowed to self-select out of our population through natural selection? At least implicitly.

In a sense, this is not a fair critique since (free) market forces-- if allowed to work-- would achieve similar ends, even if by different means (philosophically and practically). The unhealthy would pay higher insurance premiums and be encouraged to change their lifestyles. And so on.

Even so, the motives of the market-oriented are more about individual freedom and responsibility than having a set of elites who would ration care to those who "deserve" it.