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The right to die: A mind-numbing ruling
It said the Controlled Substances Act does not give the Bush administration authority to punish Oregon doctors for prescribing the drugs terminally ill patients use to kill themselves.
Several years ago the Supreme Court ruled there is no constitutional right to die, and so Congress could wade in with new legislation.
But if one has courage to open the door, you'll find the elephant stuffed in the closet. Justice Antonin Scalia takes notice of it in dissent.
"The court's decision today is perhaps driven by a feeling that the subject of assisted suicide is none of the federal government's business. It is easy to sympathize with that."
But while Mr. Justice Scalia won't accept his own advice -- perchance because of his feelings about the sanctity of life -- we do.
The Controlled Substances Act prohibits a doctor from prescribing drugs except for a "legitimate medical purpose."
Democratically, the people of Oregon decided that a legitimate medical purpose -- the end of suffering -- may be served when a terminally ill patient, fitting within strict criteria, chooses to end his life.
This patient could blow his brains out with a revolver. But as a matter of right -- authority over his body and his life -- he should have recourse to a humane death.
Why? Because the government does not own him.
