Dear Peaches:
On the suicide topic....I was PISSED as hell when just 10 days after 9/11/2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft stuck his BIG FAT FACE into the Oregon assisted suicide law and declared it illegal under Federal law. The Oregon law allowed assisted suicide when someone is terminal, i.e., 6 months or less to live, and still competent to decide to pull the plug voluntarily, and has the certifications from two doctors the person is sane, not depressed, and is making their own rational choice. The Oregon law already posed significant hurdles for someone terminally ill, as often people are not competent 6 months before death (especially Alzheimer’s patients), or are significantly depressed, so the category of people affected by the law was small anyway, in an already small state.
Earlier this year a federal judge held Ashcroft overstepped his bounds and ordered the feds to NOT prosecute anyone assisting a suicide under the Oregon law:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/04/17/oregon.a...sisted.suicide/
I totally agree assisted suicide should be allowed for the terminally ill....and I would expand the rule to include provision for future incompetence....so you're not stuck in living hell after a devastating stroke or Alzheimer’s disease robs you of your brain long before your body is ready to die.
For prisoners on death row, I firmly believe the choice of Cyanide with OJ should be offered as a standard breakfast choice...