Woody Cavenaugh

I am hearing this morning that the people of Oregon voted in favor of assisted suicide. Bush had a different idea, he said in so many words, "I don't care what the majority of Oregon people want, I say "no" and that's final." Fortunately, the Supreme Court still remembers that this is a democracy and the majority rule. I am shocked and appalled at how much of what goes on in our government every day would make the founding fathers spin in their graves. I sometimes wonder that if they were alive today would they try to repair what was broken, or lead us in revolution. I personally hope they would try to fix what was broken, but it is hard to know the hearts and minds of the undead.
News article here.

I always found it funny that people have a lot less trouble with killing someone, than letting someone kill themselves. Most states allow capital punishment, but to my knowledge only one or two allow assisted suicide, and only Oregon has a law allowing it outright.

I believe it probably comes down to power. People want power over other people, governments want power over people, people and governments ultimately don't like it when other strange people can choose for themselves. I can do whatever I want, paint my house pink with green polka-dots for instance, but if YOU do it, I'm going homeowners association all over your weird butt.

We can't of course talk about right to die without bring up religion. I am no expert here, but from what I remember from bible school, the King James was pretty consistent about suicide. I seem to remember the New Testimate being pretty consistent about killing, but I recall that the Old Testimate couldn't seem to make up its mind on the subject. Yes, I said it. The Almighty was a flipflopper on the death penalty. The very first one in fact, so I guess that means it is ok to change your mind. Take that Senate Judiciary Committee!

Myself I am pretty ambiguous on all life taking debates (right to die, capital punishment, and abortion). Is it really my right to tell someone else what they can and cannot do with their own life? I think that if I had the 100% legal choice over whether or not I could take my own life the fact that I chose not to end it would count for more when I am judged. Choice is power. Is that what scares you so much? I tend to think that I would support capital punishment if we were sure, not just legally satisfied that someone is guilty of the crime. Thus, I am very much for doing any DNA testing possible on all death row inmates. If you are responsible for sending an innocent man to death row how do you figure that is going to look on your eternal record at the pearly gates? I smell brimstone? Do you smell brimstone? Finally, abortion this one is the trickiest of all because we can't even agree on when someone is a living human being, without that we really can't go any further. Although there is some promising research with bunny eggs out there that may make the argument moot. Nobody cares when a rabbit is a living rabbit being. Well, nobody worth mentioning anyway....

late edit: Please check out this article from Brenda Bowers on the subject of "right to die". (Thanks for getting me the link Brenda!)