US Adults Favor Doctor-Assisted Suicide: Survey
Excerpt:
Oregon's ``Death with Dignity Act'' was challenged
during the late 1990s by the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), which ruled that physicians
who prescribed federally controlled drugs in accordance
with that law would violate the federal Controlled
Substances Act (CSA). This ruling was overturned in
1998 by then-Attorney General Janet Reno.
In early November 2001, however, Attorney General
John Ashcroft reversed Reno's ruling. In a memo to
DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson, he wrote that
``DEA's original reading of the CSA--that controlled substances
may not be dispensed to assist a suicide--was
correct,'' and ordered that it be reinstated and implemented.
Survey participants were told that Ashcroft ``moved
to overrule (the proposition), which he says is now
illegal,'' and then asked, ``Do you think (he)
was right or wrong to do this?'' More than half (58%) of
the respondents said that Ashcroft was wrong,
while 35% said he was right.
``No matter which questions are asked, there is
a strong, approximately two-to-one majority in favor of
an individual's right to euthanasia and physician-assisted
suicide where terminally ill
patients clearly want this to happen,'' the survey
concludes.
In light of the survey findings, Ann Jackson,
executive director of the non-profit Oregon Hospice Association,
told Reuters Health, ``I think the public is
moving towards wanting the right to make choices for themselves.''
=====
Commentary by Dave:
Tho it seems quite typical that the Democratic(ally) nominated AJ thought
we had a right to self-determine...
The Repug AJ thinks 'gub'ment, and HIS church, knows best'.
The last paragraph (quoted above) is the one that REALLY burns me -
``I think the public is moving towards wanting
the right to make choices for themselves.''
My question - When, in our history, did the public move AWAY from wanting
the right to make our own choices?
Sheeeeesh!
This comes from my Libertarian mindset (yes, I've held back telling
you before that I wasn't a Dem)...
Don't we have a right to self-determine? Isn't that EXACTLY what Freedom
is?
Now, granted, I've got plenty of complaints about the Democrats (spineless
and often on someone other than
the voters payroll), but E-Gads, the Repugs want more-and-more to take
over our lives, eliminating freedom(s),
leaving us with only the 'right' to give our money to Big Business
& growing the Government
(Yes, Repugs are the BIG GUB'MENT party I've learned).
Ok... I'm done with my rant.
For a change, I'll ask you to withhold my name/email from this commentary.
I'm up for election to State Assembly in two months and don't need
any *heat*.