Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Howard Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic party, went after Sarah Palin over the weekend in saying that she made up concerns about euthanasia in the national government-run health care bills. Palin said recently that the bills would target the disabled and elderly.

Dean told CNN Sunday that Palin, the former Alaska governor, deliberately made up what he called bogus charges against the bills pending in Congress.

“About euthanasia, they're just totally erroneous. She just made that up,” he said.

“There's nothing like euthanasia in the bill. I practiced medicine for a long time, and of course you have to have end of life discussions — the patients want that. There's nothing… euthanasia's not in this bill," Dean claimed.

Palin released a statement on Friday saying she opposes the government-run health care bills pending in Congress and cited its pro-abortion and euthanasia components.

Palin said she worries the health care bill will be paid for on the backs of the elderly and disabled, who could be pushed into euthanasia and assisted suicide via rationing of medical treatment.

"And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course," she said.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society' whether they are worthy of health care," Palin says. "Such a system is downright evil."

"Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion," she continued.

While the mainstream media has bashed Palin, others point to similar concerns.

In a recent New York Post column, Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and health care expert, wrote:

“One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care (House bill, p. 425-430). The sessions cover highly sensitive matters such as whether to receive antibiotics and ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration.’ This mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care.”

In section 1233 of the tri-committee health care bill, a government-run "Advance Care Planning Consultation" is created.

McCaughey, in an interview with former presidential candidate Fred Thompson on his radio show warned people to "protect their parents" from the measure and said the consultation is essentially an attempt to kill off elderly Americans.

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