'Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Do pay it. Don't forget.'

The Supreme Court may grant the human animal the same consideration we would give a dying pet. Twice the people of Oregon have voted to let doctors prescribe a lethal dose of drugs for mentally competent, terminally ill patients who are within six months of dying. Those patients could then decide themselves whether or not to end their own lives. There were provisions to protect depressed patients from themselves (phew) and to save the wealthy elderly from over-anxious heirs.

Then the nipple-fearing Ashcroft and the mealy-mouth Gonzales decided that helping someone commit suicide by prescribing a narcotic would violate the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and that assisting with a suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose." If you use a baseball bat or a concrete overpass, that's your business. Just don't ask for anything certain and painless. Thanks for your help!

Today Diana Ross, excuse me, John Roberts and the Supremes voted 6-3 against the Attorney General in Gonzales v. Oregon (formerly Ashcroft v. Oregon). What happens now depends on who you ask. National Review even dug up the corpse of John Calhoun to equate Oregon's law with "state nullification" and Calhoun's defense of slavery.

See also: Supreme Court: The Kelo Decision