Right to Die

Yesterday Oregon's Supreme Court upheld a law passed twice by the citizenry that allows doctors to prescribe medication to allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with dignity and a minimum of suffering. The Bush administration, and several Christian organizations are, of course, vehemently opposing this. And as I listened to this story on NPR this morning I struggled to understand why these groups that are so quick to endorse the death penalty and war are so strenuously opposed to allowing innocent, suffering people of sound mind the right to end their own lives. I mean think about it. A man who brutally rapes, tortures, and then kills an 11 year old girl will get a peaceful, painless lethal injection, but a woman who has committed no crime must suffer a withering, horrificly painful death at the brutal hands of cancer because the 'moral' right says so. It doesn't make sense, even for the radical right-wing extremeists. Then something dawned on me. These folks are also, probably, in bed with the insurance industry. Dead people don't bring in revenue, but a barely living, heavily medicated ICU patient quickly pays for a yacht and trip to Bermuda. This is pure speculation, and I haven't a shred of evidence, but it's the only way any of this makes sense.

That or they are just plain stupid.

Marius