Brownback panders to radical right on Death With Dignity

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), a legislator who believes that the government should control our behavior based on his own religious beliefs threw a pathetic bone to his fanatical supporters on Friday by calling a quick subcommittee hearing on assisted suicide.

In the wake of the Gay Hate amendment that went to down to defeat earlier in the week, this was another attempt by the increasingly rag-tag discredited Republican Taliban to force their rabid fundamentalism on the rest of us.

Appealing to the Republican base which believes that government's place is in bedrooms and hospital rooms but not boardrooms, he demonstrated the cynicism and total bankruptcy of a party on the way out. Even Oregon's conservative Senator Gordon Smith has put the issue to rest.

Oregon voted three times, once in the legislature and twice in ballot initiatives to approve its Death With Dignity law. In 2000, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden blocked a bill sponsored by the Republicans, laughingly called the "Pain Relief Promotion Act," the aim of which was to knock down the Oregon law.

In 2001, the Bush administration tried to block the law again by having Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft rule that doctors who prescribe the lethal dose would be liable for criminal prosecution. It was a flimsy excuse used to pander to the religious radicals and it was laughed out of Federal Court on the State level, in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court and finally ruled against in the U.S. Supreme Court.

But these guys never stop. Brownback was quoted in The Oregonian as saying, "I held a hearing on this topic because I think we should carefully consider the unintended consequences and slippery slope of doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Legalizing doctor-assisted suicide can lead toward involuntary euthanasia, as we've seen in the Netherlands."

He knows this is a lie. There is no slippery slope. Oregonians use the law in very small numbers, and the evidence of several years of the law being in effect points to the fact that the law provides a cushion of peace for those dying.

The arguments against the law have been proven wrong. It isn't abused. Thousands of people have not flocked to Oregon to use it. Relatives aren't persuading their dying loved ones to get it over with. It is a law that works.

As the religious radical right sinks, you can bet they will be going down with guns blazing. But we know that their arguments are wrong at best and lies at worst.
This is not a campaign issue. It is just another attempt by a cynic in Congress to pander. He doesn't even have a bill to propose. He just wanted some publicity at the taxpayer's expense.
Other radical right wingers continue to lie about the issue. Lee Edwards, of the Heritage Foundation (they hijacked the word "heritage" too) was quoted in The Oregonian saying, "It's the concept of the scientific or the medical community treating people with less dignity, as expendable. With physician-assisted suicide, life is treated as a burden, that people who don't meet a certain standard, that it is somehow better off for them to be dead."

He pulled that out of his ass. He has no information to back that up, based on the Oregon experience. It's just a lie, made up to scare people. I have personally watched doctors agonize over the issue. Nobody has ever said anybody should be better off dead. Shame on you, Edwards.

The upside is that like the ravings of Ann Coulter, Brownback DOES bring up the subject again. That's not a bad thing. His religious posturing alerts people to the issue and how important it is. And they also turn off the rest of the electorate, weary of such posturing.

California will take up the issue again soon. This time there is a better chance of its passing. The more the radical right wing discredits itself, the more chance the bill will pass.

It's a medical issue, one between the patient and doctor. It's not a political issue. If it is a religious issue for YOU, don't do it.

That's the American way.