After centuries of scientific struggle the world of medicine has change our lives. There are drugs, vaccines, cures and fixes that can extend peoples lives well into their 90's.

There are however draw backs to all this medical advancement. One are the pills-- there are pills for pretty much everything with side effects that range from fever to death. And there are plenty of desperate people willing to take them for their quick fix. The other drawback is the dozens of conflicting studies that have come out every year. "Scientists say eggs are unhealthy.” “Scientist say eat three eggs a day.” “Scientist say drink red wine.” “Scientist say drinking can lead to liver damage.”

Well, anyone who knows statistics, advertising or science AlSO knows that you can make any 'experiment' say anything.

I am, if you don't know, an atheist yet even I take get a little nervous about the blind faith many people put into 'science', or at least this faux science. Over the past couple years American has taken out a vendetta on tobacco. They've done everything from sue for millions to trying to force huge cross bones on cigarettes. Is big tobacco full of jack asses, probably, did they do anything wrong... anymore than any other company...? What they did wrong is get caught. Every day car companies hide fault in the cars until they can't any longer an issue a recall, which is just having the car owner come in so it can be fix without explaining they were driving a death trap. Or the fact the companies sell foods that they know to be unhealthy and that in large quantities can lead to illness or death.

But out of all these evil corporations only tobacco is required to pay for ads against buying their product, and follow restriction on where they can advertise as well as mark their containers with warnings against using their product.

I'm all for informing the public, please, please do. But I think that the public has the right and most importantly the responsibility to choose. I should be able to choose to smoke if I'd like. However with more social restriction on where I can smoke there slowly becomes no place to smoke. I except that people don't want to inhale my smoke, so I stand away from crowds, because it's polite. And I smoke around other smokers or people how choose to be in my presence. But that ability is being taken away with law that say I can't smoke 'this many feet' from a building, that say I can smoke inside any business even if everyone who enters is a smoker, there was even talk about passing law to stop smoking in cars let alone if your rent an apartment most won't let you smoke inside.

It's one thing to protect people who don't want to smoke it's another to quietly and sneakily steam roll cigarettes out of existence.

Fact cigarettes MAY cause death or complications leading to death. Not everyone who smokes dies from smoking. Despite what every one tries to terrify you with.

Fact the current statistics of deaths do to smoking does not calculate the fact that their was an entire babyboomer generation (a generation larger then almost the rest of the US population) who lived in an era where people who didn't smoke were abnormal versus the new generation that is aware of the risks of smoke and a much smaller demographic.

But this isn't about just smoking its about the ability to choose any risky situation. I as an informed individual should be (an am with some social consequences) allowed to drink to excess part take in dangerous activities. The odds that a motorcyclist will be in an accident is 100%. while it may not be fatal all the time it does happen yet one pickets their aren't huge warnings on the sides of bikes or any other type of restriction.

It seems to me that in America today if you tell parents that their child might be hurt or die that they are willing to rip away freedom to stop it even if it's not true. They say cigarette companies advertised to kids and now they is no stopping legislation to wipe out tobacco. They say video games make kids violent and they want to ban everything. Okay protect your kids, pay attention to what they are doing but to take away the rights of every adult American.

It is our right to choose even if it is a bad choice I can choose to drink and smoke. But not only that, as long as I'm informed and with in reason I should be able to choose how to live my life... or not live it. Granted that their should be counseling and test but people should be able to choose suicide. There are plenty or reason why death is better than life (assuming you're not hung up on religion). It is not selfish to choose death its selfish to bully people into choosing life. You don't know how they feel you don't know the pain yet people presume to condemn those who don't want it anymore.

And yes I will agree that very often people who are suicidal are in the midst of an imbalance and aren't thinking rationally; given time they could be rebalanced and would not choose death. And there should be consideration for that their should be a process to weed those people out.

But most of all I should choose how to live or die no matter the consequences.