Ryan ChartrandImagine President Baker decided to assign grades for every student in every class at Cal Poly.
There probably wouldn’t be any fuss as long as President Baker always assigned grades according to whatever the professor was going to assign. Baker is in no position to make expert critiques on your calculus homework No. 5 and he isn’t an expert on your personal academic performance in all of your classes, as it should be.
Similarly the Supreme Court is in no position to make expert medical decisions concerning health practices. If they do make any decisions concerning medical procedure, you would hope they consult experts, such as actual medical practitioners. In the recent Gonzales v. Carhart, this is not the case. The 5-4 majority opinion disregarded a unanimous agreement among mainstream medical organizations opposing any ban without exception to care for the health and life of the individuals involved. (http://writ.news.findlaw.com/lazarus/20070426.html)
The precedent set in this case can only mean one of two things: 1) Life is no longer constitutionally protected, or 2) The Supreme Court thinks it knows better than the medical professionals on how to best medically care for a person’s life.
Jay Hann
Mathematics senior