European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 6, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday May 6, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 in ups of Nixon . Rosenthal shortly after Richard Nixon chose to resign the presidency rather than be thrown out an iranian general and a French ambassador asked me whatever was going on in the United states. The general served in the court of an emperor who had just told me that he ruled not by Ordinary generalized divine right but by specific divine decision conveyed to him by a heavenly messenger. The ambassador served a president to whom political messages were conveyed Only by voters or Between elections by Farmers demonstrating for higher cheese subsidies. The general and the ambassador had much in common a magnificent manners Superb education and intense loyalty to their leaders and systems of. A a  a a government. The general at the Shah a summer Palace and the ambassador in an asian capital asked the same questions. What had Nixon done to bring such a disgrace upon himself had he participated in that watergate robbery thing or ordered it no Well then was there something else some Case of. Theft or political murder something so ugly that both press and officialdom had decided a which they said they could understand and approve a to protect americans Honor by driving Nixon out on a technicality i explained that the reason for Nixon a departure was nothing like that but simply what they had heard and read but could not believe. Nixon had told his aides to get Busy to make sure that he and his administration could not be connected to a political burglary he apparently had not known about until after the  was a cover up you see obstruction of Justice and if done by a president an impermissible violation of the Constitution you understand. V by the time i convinced them that no other crime was being hidden by the american establishment the ambassador and the general shared something new in common. Both thought i was a fool and that so were the rest of my countrymen nation destroying fools. For years i have kept running into the same reaction abroad a How could you people do this to a sitting president one so admired in so Many nations no other country would have done that no a and every time i hear it i feel not embarrassment but a new flush of Pride for my country. I feel new respect for All those politicians who did decide that presidential obstruction of Justice could hot be constitutionally tolerated particularly for republicans among them. I have deeper affection for americans themselves most of All the millions who were sick at the political cashiering of the Man they voted for but who came to agree that there was no other Way. On any Given Day the american system and american politics Are denigrated by cynics a even More at Home than abroad. That wont kill us probably but it does sometimes prevent us from seeing what is Good and Brave in american conduct. That leads to a kind of automatic self abnegation which is As unhealthy As automatic self aggrandizement. A a a a. Quot no no other country would have forced a president out on such grounds because no other country was willing to pay so much to protect a democratic holy determined Constitution. Myself i think Nixon a greater constitutional offence was to treat Federal investigative agencies As his private detectives and personal prosecutors a hounding americans he considered his enemies. American insistence that elected officials observe the Constitution in All its details produces a sense of fairness and Justice done. It also produces the stability that allowed Nixon to create a fruitful life after so great a disgrace. Americans looked at him in his last years and asked themselves would i have been Strong enough to return from such shame if i were would i not have the right to do so under the very Constitution that Nixon violated and that so humbled him what americans would have wanted for themselves they gave to Richard Nixon with Grace. I could have done without the canonization. To the end he had attacks of mischief making and to the end he could not see Why foreigners should try to do sonic thing about things like mass torture in China. But after paying his Price he claimed his rights and received them which should be a matter of Pride to us All. Yes Only in America that a right a a a a a a a c now Yolk tin Rios. . Down chilling path the decision by a Michigan jury to acquit or. Jack Kevorkian of a criminal charge that he helped a 30-year-old Man kill himself erases an important line Between life and death that will not easily be redrawn. The jury ignored Michigan a Law Banning assisted suicide and played a semantic game when it concluded there is a difference Between assisted suicide and easing a persons suffering. Kevorkian a lawyer correctly asserted that the verdict a a drives a stake into the heart of the Michigan Law. As with abortion a whose most vigorous proponents argued that the procedure be allowed because a Small number of 12-year-Olds were being impregnated by Stepfather a euthanasia is being introduced to America at the extremes. Who would not feel compassion for a terminally ill person with no Prospect of recovery who wants to avoid pain and suffering and take control of his death but that was not the Issue in the Kevorkian trial. It is one thing legally and morally to ask that no extraordinary Means be taken to prolong a life. It is quite another to ask someone to help end that life. The Michigan Case is the beginning not the end of this debate. Kevorkian plans to Convene a committee of medical professionals to draft guidelines for the practice of physician assisted suicide in Michigan. He will pressure the american medical association and the Michigan medical society to a step Back and not intimidated other doctors he claims want to join his  a. A other states can be expected to Challenge their own assisted suicide Laws. Although Washington voters rejected a euthanasia initiative in 1991 by a 54-46 percent margin on tuesday a Federal court in Seattle struck Down the states ban on physician assisted suicides. The plaintiffs included three patients suffering from aids cancer and pulmonary disease four physicians who sought to help them end their lives and a group known As compassion in dying. The groups executive director unitarian minister Ralph Mero says a this is the first Case nationally that raises the fundamental constitutional Issue of a patients right to choose to  plaintiffs in the Seattle Case claimed a 14th amendment a equal Protection right to die the same right claimed by those who successfully argued for the right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy and kill her child. The judge ruled that the rights of a a tar Cal Thomas Minally ill mentally competent adults acting knowingly and voluntarily Quot Are Paramount. The renewed push for euthanasia Par aliens the debate Over National health care. It has serious implications for the sick and the dying. In her new Book your doctor is not in or. Jane m. Orient executive director of the association of american physicians and surgeons notes that while euthanasia proponents claim to be interested Only in voluntary suicide should the pressures of health rationing increase As they surely Willan economic formula could Sioon be used to determine whose life is Worth preserving and whose is not. In the Netherlands Orient notes of the 128,000 persons who die each year Between 5,000 and 10,000 people Are euthanized. A the ratio of involuntary to voluntary euthanasia is about 2.5 to 1, and it is not known How Many dutch patients carry a card saying a please do not euthanize me a a Freedom of choices was the rallying cry for abortion. Now As fewer doctors perform them the american Public health association has passed a Resolution stating that residency programs in obstetrics should be a a required to include training in abortions. Imagine the Money that could be saved if a unwanted unproductive people who Are going to die anyway Arentt we All received a a assistance and even encouragement to begin their adventure with death a Little earlier than might have been expected. As Orient writes a instead of buying Rice or potatoes or other nutrients at a Cost of at least $ 100 per year we could buy condoms for teen agers Asphalt for roads and salary increases for Public schoolteachers. Why should society forgo useful projects in order to provide medical care to those who Don t want to live a or to the useless or even to the unwanted a yesterdays unthinkable arc today a thinkable. Euthanasia As abortion is now thinkable because human life has been devalued. It now has Worth Only when it is Strong and Able to produce wealth or not Drain wealth from the rest of us. Like Beauty life is now in the Eye of the beholder. We Are becoming our own god with Power Over life and death. In human hands such Power could become a Type of holocaust. It has before c Losa Goloa times the opinions expressed in he columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government