Editorial

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Smith's position is dead wrong

We've read a number of editorials lauding Senator Gordon Smith's great show of courage for opposing Oregon's assisted suicide law.

We were unmoved by Senator Smith's tears as he announced this refusal to put the will of the people before his own personal religious beliefs.

There was no courage there. The dollars Smith will receive for his next reelection campaign will more than make up for any votes lost by his defiance of Oregon voters.

Mr. Smith has every right to express his feelings on this difficult issue. He is wrong to use the power of his office to impose his religion on the rest of us. By doing so, he betrays Oregon, he betrays the Constitution and he betrays true Republican principles.

By attempting to overturn a law overwhelmingly supported by the majority of Oregonians, Smith presses his religious beliefs at the deathbed of people he doesn't know. This shows an appalling disrespect for the will of the dying at their most vulnerable moment.

Not only does this strike us as unconstitutional at its very core, we thought Republicans wanted government out of the lives of the people. This is the worst possible kind of intrusion.

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