Deceptive right wing

Now we have Republican Sen. Bruce Starr saying that we need to change Oregon law in the aftermath of the horrible and bizarre killing of a young pregnant mother, Heather Snively.

This is a clear and blatant attempt to redefine what is a person.

"I hope to never see another case like we've seen," Starr said. "But in the event that we do, where you have an unbelievably barbaric crime and clearly two victims, both victims will receive proper justice."

Victims of murder don't receive justice, Mr. Starr. They are dead. A corpse. There is no person to receive that justice. There is no justice for the dead, only for their families and for society.

Starr's lack of thinking on this issue is typical. It is also disgustingly calculating. But what is most disturbing about this cold manipulation of grief is that it is deceitful and opportunistic. Adding to the charges faced by the abomination who carried out this crime would not have prevented Heather's murder.

To think otherwise is absurd. The woman who killed this young mother and cut the fetus from her womb is a monster. Probably insane. And very unlikely to have been deterred by the risk of a second murder charge.

Defining the fetus as a victim is a way of saying the fetus is a person. Calling it murder is a backhanded way of conferring status as a person. We haven't done that yet in Oregon, and we have to do that first if we want to be rational in expanding the homicide stature in this way.

The last time the Religious Right tried to do this in Oregon was in the aftermath of the Laci Peterson murder. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.

Starr is callously taking advantage of this tragedy to promote a political agenda. That is wrong. He is slimy for doing so.