|
|
It is important to understand how it is that District Court Judge Dorothy McCarter ruled last December that physician-assisted suicide is a constitutional right when it is a violation of Montana’s homicide law. It has to do with the privacy clause in Montana’s Constitution being stretched by an activist judge beyond its original intent and beyond all reason. This is not the only case where Judge McCarter stands out as one of the worst offenders of this type of judicial tyranny.
|
|
There is not only state, but national precedent. In 1997, the US Supreme Court in a unanimous 9:0 ruling rejected the claim that assisted suicide is a constitutional right. Laws throughout the history of this nation have prohibited suicide. Laws against suicide are based on our nation’s founding principle that life comes from God, as the Declaration of independence asserts, not from government and not from us.
|
|
Furthermore, we have the means to control the pain and anxiety of terminal illness. Hospice care practitioners do a fabulous job. If there are places where Hospice is not available, we should strive to fix that situation rather than killing people. The sacred trust between physician and patient will be severely eroded if euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are legalized. Death is a much easier and cheaper option, and legalization opens the door to coercion and even forced euthanasia.
|
|
Laws help advance and protect what a society values. Since we need laws and laws inevitably impose morality, it seems prudent to promote laws that are based on uncompromised reverence for the dignity and worth of each human person. We need to emphatically oppose laws that devalues human life and judges that overstep their job description.
|
Dr. Annie Bukacek MD |