HEALTH CHOICES RESTRICTED

Two actions recently taken by our federal government regarding health care
should be noted by all. Most on the mind of Oregonians is, of course, is
the U.S. attorney general's attempt to kill (pardon the pun) our Death With
Dignity Act by revoking the prescription licenses of doctors who help
terminal patients obtain the means of ending their own lives. Also, there
was the raid on the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center and the seizure of
its finances, medical records and supply of medicinal marijuana. I suspect
that a way is being sought to put an end to our own medical marijuana act
in Oregon.

While the ethical consequences of laws permitting suicide and the use of
marijuana may be debatable, they were in fact carefully crafted laws,
affirmatively voted for by a majority of voting citizens to help ease the
suffering of the afflicted. We are, in effect, being told that we may
suffer and die only according to the processes approved of by the federal
government and those who bend the politicians' ears. I find it beyond
ironic that patients with chronic or terminal ailments are told that they
may neither end their lives nor use a drug that may ease their suffering.
It seems to me that a person opposed to suicide would be in favor of
additional ways of reducing pain.

When the federal government can offer to all citizens free and universal
health care, I will accept its decisions as to what constitutes appropriate
medical care.

Russell W. Platt, Springfield