The sanctity of life itself is under attack in America. Lives are being bartered about like so much corn, beans or rice. People’s lives are being treated as a commodity, to be traded on the open market.

The insidious nature of health care delivery being associated with a for-profit business means we, ourselves, are just another form of wealth to be exploited by big-money interests; big money being everyone who profits from human misery, which includes myself and everyone else who may gloat about our new-found wealth that can be attributed to the blood, sweat and tears of so many people less fortunate than ourselves.

To respect the sanctity of life and all it encompasses means there is a basic right of everyone to access affordable and accessible health care where they live. That basic human right that we all expect should be the goal of a compassionate society that values its people, not as just another form of wealth to be exploited, but as something to be espoused like a virtue.

Social Security has been serving as a safety net for the most vulnerable citizens. Why not promote an amendment to include health care as a Social Security function?

People are dying at an alarming rate in America because health costs are the bottom line in the equation — an equation that does not have any respect for the sanctity of life and places too much emphasis on a return on our investment.

People’s lives matter.

Michael Boom, Lewiston