FOUNDING FATHERS: THEN AND NOW

In drafting the Constitution, our Founding Fathers reserved some powers to the federal government, the remainder to the states. This was not only proper, but it was the hope of many that as the states experimented and drafted different laws, the varying experiences of our people would come out.

Some laws would be found to be bad, and, hopefully, discarded.  Other states would find a better path and all of us might learn from their experience and thus “a more perfect union.”

It doesn’t always work out that way. Take two heart rending cases much in the news recently caused by two states taking two paths in similar circumstances,

In California, somehow a young girl’s tonsils operation went horribly wrong. Soon after surgery, her hospital declared her “brain dead” and wished to take her off life support systems—which that state’s law allows. Her family fought this, saying “brain dead” isn’t the same as “dead” and seeking to keep her alive until some second facility could be found which would continue life supports in the hopes her condition would improve.

In Texas, at the same time, just the reverse. A young woman was found in a coma on her bathroom floor. She, too, was declared “brain dead” and her family asked the hospital to end her life supports. Here, the hospital declined saying the woman had been found to be pregnant, and under that state’s law it could not terminate the fetus’s life.

Both families were forced to go to the courts, seeking totally different decisions under very similar circumstances. And once again the courts are faced with the Judgment of Solomon. (Think about that when next you cast your vote for  judges.)

There is also a Kentucky case currently..a family has moved from here to Colorado because their son has a rare medical condition.  It can be treated by an extract from medical marijuana. Colorado permits this; Kentucky does not—currently. Hearings were held recently in Frankfort to allow limited use of marijuana for medical purposes.

As we wait for court decisions in California and Texas, and possible appeals, let us hope Kentucky gets it right—as our Founding Fathers allows us to do.

I'm just sayin'...