[SoFloFreeper]

Link will follow...this just crossed.

[SoFloFreeper]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.
Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people trumped federal authority to regulate doctors.

[loreldan]

How did Roberts vote?

[djf]

Sounds like Kervorkian is a free man...

[FourtySeven]

And the culture of death continues its slow march forward.

[EternalVigilance]

The God-given, unalienable right to life is dead in America.

The horrors to follow will not be pretty...

[greasepaint]

this is a matter for the states

[Falcon4.0]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

More devastating than a tsunami, more tragic than a Hurricane, more destructive than a Earthquake.

Be AFFRAID, be very affraid.

[Wolfie]

So a doctor can help a patient die with lethal drugs, but can't help a patient live with medical marijuana. Go figure.

[Graymatter]

"One-of-a-kind" suicide law. Not for long.

[SoFloFreeper]

The promised link: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/politics/13645354.htm

Please put in the header. :)

[conservative physics]

This ruling will set the stage for the euthanizing of the baby boomer's once they become to big of a burden on their families.

[MineralMan]

Even had Alito been seated, the decision would have been the same, but 5-4.

[Salvation]

Oregon Ping

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.

[Gone GF]

Sounds like the right decision to me.

[antiRepublicrat]

The court that Bush is forming beginning with Roberts is starting to look good, at least in the area of restricted federal powers. Unfortunately, the decision supported other federal intrusions.

I wonder what Bush's personal opinion is? His AG prosecuted this, but his new chief justice presided over shooting it down.

[Raycpa]

This bodes well for abortion then. The laws of life and death should remain with the various states.

[Pondman88]

Across the country, everyday, elderly and sick patients are given "extra" morphine, which stops the heart. We have an informal system of euthanasia, which is used at the families and doctors discretion. When you are going out the door, I have little to no problem with easing the transition.

[eyespysomething]

State issue, I am uncomfortable with the feds being involved with everything. I believe abortion should be a state issue also.

Where states used to be individuals, we are all one big homogenous fed state now.

The voters of Oregon should change this if they want.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

So why have a line between physician assisted and non physician assisted suicide? I suppose if the people of Oregon decided it is okay then the Supremes would sign off on suicide in general.

I don't know. I need more information because I am torn. On the one hand, the people of Oregon can be stupid if they want to be. On the other hand, weakening the value of human life (and this does because it is too subjective) is a danger to all of us.

[Brytani]

Having watched two people close to me die from terminal diseases, I have mixed feelings on this matter.

My Aunt had terminal cancer throughout her body. By the time she finally passed, she weighed 75lbs, was in an induced coma for pain and lived that way for months.

Another was a dear friend who died from the complications of AIDS (yes he was gay, sue me). After watching his skin slough off of his body, the incredible pain he was in, it would have been more humane for him to pass sooner.

A person being in sound mind, facing a few months to live, who makes the decision to end life-saving treatment to hasten death or who asks for an injection of medicine to end their life is one thing. An adulterous husband, a woman inconvenienced by a pregnancy or a third party making the decision for another person is another.

It is my understanding that the Oregon law does not allow for a their person to decide a person in sound mind should die. It only allows the patient, with medical agreement, to make the decision for themselves.