Still, no liberal I know of has ever argued that this perceived First Amendment mandate to subsidize some people's freedom of speech must be extended to everyone. Where, for example, are the liberals who argue that the First Amendment requires Congress to subsidize the freedom of speech of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin?

Yet, when Ted Kennedy declared that we must "guarantee that every American -- North, South, East, West, young, old -- will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right" -- an arena full of modern-day Democrats stood up and cheered.

If Americans accept this principle and allow Congress to enact it into law, they will soon find themselves parsing Kennedy's declaration as if it were a sworn statement by Bill Clinton.

The universal right to "decent, quality health care," they will discover, depends on the meaning of "decent" and "quality."

Many liberals, for example, deemed it an act of "decent, quality health care" when a judge ordered the feeding tube yanked from Terri Schiavo. He was respecting her "right" to die -- by ordering her slowly starved and dehydrated to death.

The majority of Oregon voters in 1997 decided that "decent, quality health care" included authorizing doctors to assist sick people in murdering themselves. They called it the "Death With Dignity Act." The U.S. Supreme Court upheld it.

If we claim health care as a "right" from government, we should not be surprised if government, in return, tries to claim our right to life.