America has an unhealthy obsession regarding the termination of life. I'm sure that this comes from the majority of Americans claiming to be Christians, a religion which promotes death as life. But Who Would Jesus Execute?

America is especially conflicted over who determines life and death - and for whom the death knell will sound. Throughout American history, death is a prominent feature, whether it be those falling by the wayside during the heroic travails of those coming to the New World seeking a better life, or the practice of removing the life force from those dastardly "inferiors" already living on "our" North American continent in order to provide that better life. Such a dichotomy might also apply to those people whose countries contain "our" oil needed to slake the monumental thirst of our SUK-Vs.

Then there is the decision of who lives or dies in our society. In current day America, one can have one's life taken away through the due process of law (whether or not one is truly guilty). It's a favorite pastime of jurists across the land. In 2006, 91 per cent of all known executions took place in six countries: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan - and the USA.

Too many crimes in America result in the death penalty being imposed, and yet it remains the policy of penal choice for our lawmakers. Since 1977, over 1000 people have been executed, with another 3500 or so awaiting a similar fate. Yet of these, some may have been wrongly killed. Cases in Missouri, Texas, and Virginia demonstrate that there has too often been a rush to judgment. This thought is reinforced by the fact that 123 death row inmates across the nation were found to be innocent and released after winning new trials.

A death penalty is by definition involuntary. But what of those who themselves choose to die? Should they be forced to live anyway? I'm not just talking about those in America who are terminally ill and have no quality in their lives. I'm talking about the 311 Italian prisioners serving life sentences who no longer wish to live a life of "dying a little bit every day". Now that Dr. Jack Kevorkian is about to released from prison, maybe the Italian authorities would like to hire him to provide this last request of the Italian prisoners?

In addition, maybe Kevorkian could find work in Guantanamo, where another "detainee" chose the only likely way out of American captivity.

It's OK for a nominally-legal governing entity to determine that your life requires cessation (See: Saddam Hussein), but don't you - or your significant other - decide without benefit of governmental jurisprudence to conclude your stay upon this mortal coil! That's both a crime and a "sin"!

Another "sin" is for a woman to decide that she wants to terminate her pregnancy - the very one she wanted to avoid, but couldn't prevent, due to the religious beliefs of the pharmacist who refused to fill her prescription for birth control. If her inebriated lawfully-wedded husband wasn't about to be denied his God-given right to risk impregnating her, she gets to live with it - the hussy!

Maybe someday, America will grow up and begin to exhibit adult wisdom in the conduct of our affairs. Until then, juvenile minds camouflaged inside adult bodies will continue to prevent our nation from really becoming that shining city on the hill, the image used so effectively by St. Ronnie Reagan to inspire the American people to abandon all the social and intellectual progress made in our land since the end of World War II.

That's what is really killing me!