According to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist(R-TN), “These are extraordinary circumstances that center on the most fundamental of human values and virtues: the sanctity of human life.” He was speaking, of course, on the Congressional intervention into the debate over the maintainence of life for terminally brain dead Terri Schiavo.

Perhaps cynicism into the motives of the Republican right would not exist if these true Christians believed that the “sanctity of life” extended to death row inmates and those wounded and murdered Americans who die everyday from unregulated guns.

As long as Republicans state that the protection of life is the highest moral value, we will expect them to protect endangered species in the Alaskan National Wildlife Region. May they also think twice about applauding and financing pre-emptive wars. Would not a National Health Insurance plan also promote and enhance health and forestall death?

Only when Republicans and their devout supporters protect the right to life from the placenta to the prison, will we believe the solemn oaths they pretend to subscribe to on the “sanctity of life”.