Hinkle muddled on death with dignity

by: Jay Stevens

Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 11:42:04 AM MST

The rush is on, led by Republican state Senator Greg Hinkle.

Now, no one ever claimed Hinkle was the sharpest tool in the toolbox, but check out his statement on physician-assisted suicide, and why he's passing a bill outlawing it:

On top of working on drafting a bill for stricter DUI laws, Hinkle currently introduced a bill to illegalize physician-assisted suicide, which was made legal in a Supreme Court decision this past year.

Hinkle explained that physician assisted suicide does not deal with someone who is terminally ill or on a life support system where their family members can decide turn it off. Hinkle used the example of going into diabetic shock, which is under the terminally ill category and something a person can recover from. However, now that this bill has passed, a doctor can say that a person is permanently ill and can decide to kill that person, even if they could have the potential to recover.

"You no longer have control of your own life," said Hinkle. "I'm laying the groundwork, the bill has just been drafted and will get really big as time goes on."

Er...what? Senator Hinkle's obviously confusing a "living will" with "physician-aided suicide."

This is such a bone-headed "understanding" of what physician-aided suicide is that it makes me wish the state legislature had a penalty box for legislators, where the worst incompetents could be stashed away for the session and allowed to do no harm to the body politic.