One More Day Alive

Consensus has a value, especially when it is reached through a common high value rather than the lowest common denominator. Isn’t it about time we find that when it comes to health care?

It seems like that highest common value should and could be the respect for human life.

The debate over healthcare is dominating the airwaves, and suddenly people are coming out in droves at town meetings speaking their minds, questioning and criticizing.

Let me buck all the other pundits who are getting all shook up and say this is the best thing that could have happened to America.

Because Americans all over the place are looking for the most just and effective way to take care of each other; wow – that’s downright beautiful.

Furthermore people are actually taking the time to scrutinize a policy decision and think about how it will change our nation.

Finally, and even more importantly, they are trying to figure out what is morally right!

Intellectuals forever have worried that a rise in populism in America was going to bring about mob rule – a society in which people no longer thought but simply made emotionally directed decisions that were supported by a swell of support.

When I first saw President Obama swept into the White House last year in a wave of popular euphoria, I marveled at the public swelling of support. But I was concerned about whether in all the excitement people were really examining and questioning his policies enough, especially those that dealt with the issue of the sanctity of human life.

But right now I am witnessing a greater responsibility in our population than I have seen in my life time, and a greater concern for humanity than I have seen in a long time.

Most Americans want to help those that are sick, polls show, but they are equally concerned about losing benefits for themselves and their loved ones to pay for it and wondering whether the elderly and those on Medicare will have their care compromised.

Then there is the very real concern for whether or not the government should have the right to decide quality of life and length of life issues. Though the bills currently proposed do not implicitly endorse euthanasia, as some overzealous pundits have stated, they do paint a picture of a new government healthcare system that will pick and choose who deserves what level of care. That could lead to government deciding ultimately who will live and who will die.

Personally, I think it might make a lot more sense to build on what so many others have worked to create – making it better, helping to make coverage available to those who don’t have it through cooperatives, lowering premiums with subsidies, and increasing our nation’s commitment to faith based human services charities. In a nation as wealthy as ours, that shouldn’t be that difficult!

But there is one thing I know for sure, something I also believe the America people are starting to understand more and more because of this whole discussion.

We all have a divine right to life, and we do not receive that from the government but from our Creator. (Gallup Poll results in May showing more pro-life Americans than pro-abortion rights Americans for the first time since 1995 is a good indicator.)

I think maybe we could find the answer to this problem by looking deeper into the innate value of life and how to honor God’s dominion over it. He gave us this precious life, and only He should decide when it starts and ends. But in the mean time, it’s up to us to figure out how to best respect it in ourselves and others.

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