Let’s take a look at the latest Federal assault on State Rights, which of course is the ultimate assault on personal choices.  No, it is not Abortion but something just as dangerous to the U.S. Constitution. 

The Social Conservatives, neo cons, Christian Coalition, Bush Republicans, it doesn’t matter what you call them, want control of the citizens in America .   I am talking about trying to control how we, as individuals, want to die. 

Apparently the American people are getting a tad tired of this intrusive new Administration trying to take the position of being the moral court of final choices for all citizens of the United States .  There is nothing written in the Constitution that gives the Federal Government this kind of control, but Washington D.C. has decided that Americans are too stupid to make these decisions on our own.

We need to discuss, in detail, among our own family members what we want, as individuals, on personal choices for those last months of our lives when we are told that our condition is terminal and could be painful, degrading to our dignity and certainly financially impossible for our next of kin to handle. 

We all realize that anyone in the last throes of a deadly and debilitating disease could simply put a gun in his/her mouth and blow their brains out.  Many would rather not leave this last impression and mess for our loved ones to witness as it puts death in the category of horror rather than a natural end of life.  It is time for the American people and the government to realize that death is something we all have to face eventually and if left to the individual would prefer facing it as a natural consequence of life. 

In America it is becoming possible to live to 100, if we take care of the body and brain with good healthy habits.  It is when disease enters into the individual that some serious choices must be discussed.  Do any of us want to live in a near coma state due to the pain of so many common afflictions and the constant assault of drugs on our brains?  Do we want to live beyond the ability to clean ourselves or even breathe and eat on our own?  Have we all not seen a much loved relative simply waste away fighting not only the pain but what the drugs do to the consciousness?  When there is no cure left and nothing to face but diseases that bring on dementia and self harm, what is left for our terminal patient except to tie him/her down like a wild animal.  

The end of life choices for patients with M.S. Alzheimer’s, Cancer, ALS and many more terminal diseases is critical for them to make when they never know how much they will suffer and afflict their violence on others during those last weeks or months of their lives..  Whether these choices are offered by organizations like The Hemlock Society, Death With Dignity, End of Life Choices or Compassion and Choices, they should be discussed in every individual family home instead of waiting for the Federal Government to hand out our instructions.  Why won’t the government allow this ultimate choice to be made by us?

I believe this intrusion of power comes from the concept that Americans are too ignorant to realize the message from God.  The flurry of the religious right to legislate that life begins at conception will rewrite the U.S. Constitution and force every American to look to the Federal Government to lead us around like ignorant animals who cannot make these decisions for ourselves.  I do not believe the Federal Government should take the responsibility of speaking for God on any part of our lives. 

In President Bush’s last term in office, the determination to remove personal choices from the American citizens is getting emotional and critical.  If he is allowed to continue with the removal of these choices, America will end up as a Police State with the arm of the law intruding into our daily lives. 

Do we need this kind of control?  Absolutely some do!  We saw the need for total control just a few weeks ago when so many Americans in the gulf states were unable to leave a disaster scene when so many simply died from lack of survival skills.  Without the federal government swooping down to save the people of New Orleans , many simply died.  Waiting for the Federal Government to fly in like Superman and pull them out of the danger zone was a total shock to most of us who had been trained as children to survive the earthquakes, fires and floods in California .

Yes many Americans cannot survive these disasters and many will die from having no options or choices given to them but is that any excuse for the Federal Government to assume we are all helpless in our making the decisions of our lives? 

It should be no shock to anyone that I am a Fiscal Conservative who wants the Federal Government to stay out of our personal lives and hand them over to the individual states.  I have been screaming for a limited federal government since my first vote for Ike.  The Republican Party was based on limited government, individual freedoms and personal responsibilities and it is a shock to many of us to see our Republican Party now wanting to remove our options and choices on so many issues. 

No one is demanding that a terminally ill person be given medication to shut down their body but we are offering the choice to request it.  Each state has laws that explain that if a patient is unable to request medication to end their suffering, and they left no directions, it is up to the state to make the decision for them.  In the case of Florida , the law clearly states that the spouse of the patient has the responsibility.  In Texas when G.W. Bush was Governor, many coma patients were taken off of life support when it was determined they had no way to cover the costs of keeping themselves alive. 

On Wednesday October 5, 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court will begin deciding on the State of Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” law that allows a terminal patient, who has been determined to have less than 6 months to live and is in sound mind to request a doctor’s prescription to be filled when the patient has had reached the limit of his/her pain capacity.  Once they have that prescription in their hands the choice is theirs to make when it is filled and taken.  This decision was voted on by the citizens of Oregon with a 60% voter approval.

The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court is to determine whether Oregon even had the Constitutional Right to bring this choice to the voters.  The action was started by then Attorney General John Ashcroft who tried to control what the Oregon Physicians could prescribe which is not within the Federal Government’s authority.  The U S. Supreme court sent it back to the states at that time and we can only hope they do so again. 

Will we Americans give the Supreme Court the authority to tell us that life begins at conception and only they can tell us when we can die?  Do we as citizens of a free nation want to give up our personal choices to the current Administration?  These decisions cannot be reversed and each and every one of us should make our own determinations on when life begins and ends. 

The Bush Administration is taking too deep an interest in our personal lives and never in the history of America has anyone dared to do this.  We Americans do not need Prohibitions from the government; we need a renewal of our freedoms.  President Bush’s own personal choices have been poor and dangerous to many Americans and it is time we redefined his job description and get this man out of our lives where he does not belong. 

I realize that millions of members of the religious right figured that they could now start legislating the morals of the American people and that we gave them this right when we voted for Bush in 2000.  We gave them no such right and assumed that Bush would respect the Bill of Rights.

Amendment X

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”