DEATH WITH DIGNITY LIVES

I think the Supreme Court should stick to electing presidents. No, wait, that didn’t work out so well either. What is gong on with the court or what the bloggers call SCOTUS? Ever since that eminent domain case where they ruled a government can seize private property if it feels it can generate more tax income by selling the land to someone else, I’ve wondered if they’ve lost their marbles. In fact a big chunk of the building crumbled off recently – and that’s usually the kind of symbolism you only find in a bad novel. The medical marijuana ruling was discouraging - a ridiculous overreach with the interstate commerce bit, so I thought Death With Dignity was going to die, too. But I guess Orin Hatch can stop trying to run Oregon and start bragging about conservatives and their love of states rights again.
But I want to make two points about assisted suicide: First, we are in a battle for our freedoms - that eminent domain case is an example. So giving the State the right to authorize other humans to end a life is a very dangerous thing. I imagine going to an empty hospital room: ”Where’s my Uncle Ted?” “Uh, he decided to end it all.” “No way, I was just here yesterday and he said he was looking forward to the surgery.” “Yeah, he changed his mind after you left.” “I don’t believe it.” “We’ve got his signature right here.” “Didn’t he want his family with him?” “Nah, he didn’t want to put you through that. Here’s a copy of the form. See? He signed right there. Now we’ve got to get the room ready for someone else.”

Second, if you’re horrified by Death with Dignity, keep in mind that mercy killings happen in hospitals anyway. Don’t ask me how I know that, but I do. Terminal patients in a lot of pain are sometimes given more medicine than they can handle. Sitting there all night listening to a disease-ravaged patient grabbing the sidebars of his bed, in a prolonged agony that no pain medication can cut through, puts things in a clear light. We are human after all. As my girl Portia once said, “The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.”