PressEthic

Has the John Roberts era begun on a sour note? The first order of business for Roberts’s court is the assisted suicide law on the books in the state of Oregon. Conservatives have tried time and again to challenge this law and get rid of it, and Oregonians have supported it each time. Now conservatives see a chance to overturn the law through the Supreme Court. But this case isn’t as simple as whether or not Oregonians have the right to die. This case will also show where the Roberts court stands on issues of states’ rights and respecting the privacy of the citizens of this country.

Obviously, the people of Oregon feel that this law is good, and that it gives them a choice to die with dignity if they so choose. The argument that the law forces doctors to violate their oaths is ridiculous considering that doctors also have the right to refuse to prescribe the lethal medications. They certainly don’t inject the patients with the drugs. On that same level, people who are sick who don’t want to take this option don’t have to. The law doesn’t say that every terminally-ill patient has to die by his/her own hand – so the argument that this marginalizes sick and disabled people is also ridiculous. The point is that people now have a choice, they can choose to do it, or not. If Roberts decides that the federal government has the right to overturn a law put in place by the state and supported by the people of that state, then we’re all in trouble.

The problem of privacy and whether or not the courts have the right to legislate when people can and cannot die is also at issue. Roberts was not very clear during his appearances before Congress as to whether he thought privacy was a right, and not a fiction. If he feels that issues like this are best decided by the government instead of the people suffering through the disease, isn’t that the most dangerous part? Are we now saying that the people in places of power are so much smarter, and so much more moral than the rest of us that we can’t even decided issues like when and how we get to die?

This might not seem like that heavy an issue. After all, the court isn’t actually deciding whether or not the law is right. They are just looking at one facet of the issue right now. But it certainly will set the tone for this new court. Especially since Bush also gets to put another justice on the bench.