[hunter112]

Nope, we need not ditch the Constitution, etc, but just because an utterance came from a Founding Father, that does not make it supreme wisdom in every possible case, especially ones that 18th Century minds could not possibly have envisioned. In the time of the Founding Fathers, life was nasty, brutal and short for many people, the vast majority of disease was uncurable, and they could not have possibly imagined life support machines of the type every hospital has today.

I seem to remember reading that there was a moral objection to anesthesia in surgery, on the grounds that it kept a person from the "grace of God" that was believed to have been imparted by suffering. I'm glad that we got past that!

[wagglebee]

In the time of the Founding Fathers, life was nasty, brutal and short for many people, the vast majority of disease was uncurable, and they could not have possibly imagined life support machines of the type every hospital has today.

Actually, that is untrue. The life expectancy of those who reached adulthood was nearly what it is today, regular life expectancy rates were skewed because of childhood deaths; however, even that had dropped considerably with the development of the smallpox vaccine.

I seem to remember reading that there was a moral objection to anesthesia in surgery, on the grounds that it kept a person from the "grace of God" that was believed to have been imparted by suffering.

Do you have a link?