The right to life, as is everything else in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, is a limitation on the power of government, which was the prime concern of the Founding Fathers. It was as if the Founders were each holding a hand up at the government saying "Whoa, this you, the government, cannot do because we have the right to life, the right to choose the course of our lives." The same holds true for all the other rights ("You, the government, cannot restrict what we say because we have the right to free speech", etc.). The same holds true for the enumerated powers: "These powers we the people give you, you may do nothing more".
The distortion of the right to life is occurring as more and more people are not putting their hands up saying "WHOA", but putting their hands out, palms up, saying "GIMME, I am entitled". For example, the argument for nationalized health insurance is now "I have a right to life, I need low cost medical treatments to live, don't I?...therefore I have a right to low cost medical treatments, gimme". Similarly, "I need affordable college education to live, therefore I have a right to affordable education, gimme". And on and on...food, shelter, clothing, money, ????
Far from being seen as a restraint of government and for what it was gloriously intended to preserve: the sovereignty of the people, the right to life is now being employed to extend the force of the government beyond its enumerated powers and to mandate to us what we must do and how we must live our lives. There are rumblings in the graveyard.
Hand thrust out, palm up...or hand thrust up, palm out? We know what it was in the past. What shall it be in the future?
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