Death with dignity is in the news again as theres more wrangling in a case in Florida where a woman who's been comatose for 15 years is the object of some struggle between parents who won't let go and an ex-husband (and technically legal guardian) who wants her to be able to die. This as Oregons right-to-die law, which my moms helped pass, is going before the supremes for review.

Legally, the two don't intersect. Oregon's law is for the terminally ill, not the comatose. But they're similarly themed from a moral level. The issue is whether or not death is a natural part of life. People who rely more heavily on fundimentalist religion for their sense of morals tend to have the view that the State should not sanction death in the case of the terminally ill.

I find this a bit fishy because the same folks often support the death penalty, which has a similar philosophica makeup being that it's all about whether or not the State should be in the business of killing citizens. I also think a weird watershed will come when a stem-cell treatment can save a life: killing the potential human -- who would never be realized, mind, as it's a petri-dish thing -- to save the actual human. That's a real pickle of a rhubarb of a jam.

All this as HTS's 44 have sent sales skyrocketing. The 2nd amendment still conatins the way out for anyone with the gall to take it. You don't need a doomsday presecription to end it all, just a trip to your friendly local gun show.