At 4:50 PM -0700 11/16/97, Anonymous wrote:
The DEA announced friday that doctors in Oregon that participate in doctor assisted suicides will have their licence to prescribe drugs revoked. Since when did the DEA gestapo obtain the power to regulate physician's rights to prescribe the drugs their patients need? But more important is the realization that the thugs in
This has happened before, of course. A case in Virginia got a lot of attention not too long ago, e.g., on "60 Minutes." And here in California, where voters also passed a "medical use of marijuana" proposition, Washington is threatening revocation of doctor's licenses. There are obviously some major "states rights" issues here, and there may be some Supreme Court cases coming down the pike. A larger issue, one at a meta-level, is where "licensing" of _any_ profession or career comes from. How can some professions require licenses? Where does this authority come from? And what are the roles of ostensibly private organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association in the administration and granting of such licenses? (Long-time readers should of course know my views, that these entities are essentially modern versions of "guilds." Hardly a position original with me. But a disturbing trend, as more and more fields arrange for licensing. Economists call this "rent-seeking." The American Aptical Foddering Association sets themselves up as the arbiters of who can be an Aptical Fodderer, and rigs a deal with the police state to arrest and jail anyone who "practices aptical foddering without a license." A shakedown state.) --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."