Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2001
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Section: A
Copyright: 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Contact:  http://home.post-dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418
Author: Katherine Pfleger (AP)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?194 (Hutchinson, Asa)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

ASHCROFT GOES AFTER ASSISTED SUICIDE BY DRUGS

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft sought Tuesday to override the 
nation's only law allowing assisted suicide, declaring that taking the life 
of a terminally ill patient is not a "legitimate medical purpose" for 
federally controlled drugs.

Doctors who use such drugs to help patients die, as permitted under Oregon 
law, face suspension or revocation of their licenses to prescribe drugs, 
Ashcroft said in a letter to Asa Hutchinson, head of the Drug Enforcement 
Administration.

The order does not call for criminal prosecution of doctors. And it does 
stipulate that pain management is a valid medical use of controlled substances.

Still, right-to-die groups and other supporters of the Oregon law were 
angry that Ashcroft reversed the June 1998 order by his predecessor, Janet 
Reno, prohibiting federal drug agents from moving against doctors who use 
Oregon's law.

"Given everything that the country is going through right now, with the 
country trying to respond to anthrax, why John Ashcroft picked this moment 
to inject this divisive issue into the public debate is just beyond me," 
said Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat and a former doctor. He 
denounced the decision as an "unprecedented federal intrusion on Oregon's 
ability to regulate the practice of medicine."

A spokesman for the Oregon attorney general's office said the state would 
file motions today in U.S. District Court in Portland seeking to block the 
order.

But some religious groups and anti-abortion organizations hailed the move 
by Ashcroft.

"We felt that Reno had set up a very improper and bizarre situation that 
had the act of killing patients with federal substances illegal in 49 
states" but not in Oregon, said David O'Steen, executive director of the 
National Right to Life Committee.

Ken Lisaius, a White House spokesman, said President George W. Bush had 
made it clear that he opposed Oregon's law. "The president believes we must 
value life and protect the sanctity of life at all stages," Lisaius said.

At least 70 terminally ill people have ended their lives since the Oregon 
law took effect in 1997, according to the Oregon Health Division. All have 
done so with a federally controlled substance such as a barbiturate.

Under the law, doctors may provide -- but not administer -- a lethal 
prescription to terminally ill adult state residents. It requires that two 
doctors agree the patient has less than six months to live, has voluntarily 
chosen to die and is able to make health care decisions.

Some doctors worried that a side effect of Ashcroft's decision could be 
that physicians and other medical professionals will be less likely to 
provide adequate pain relief to very ill patients.

"If a physician is accused of misusing drugs, he's essentially under an 
intense degree of investigation," said Robert Dernedde, executive director 
of the Oregon Medical Association. "Appropriate pain management is going to 
be compromised."

Dernedde also was concerned that doctor-patient confidentiality could be 
compromised as drug agents sought to carry out the order. "We don't need to 
have federal officials pawing through medical records looking for what they 
might view as nonmedical," he said.

Oregon Death With Dignity and other proponents of the law complained that 
the federal government was trampling on a states'-rights issue. Oregon 
voters have twice approved referendums to allow physician-assisted suicides.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Ashcroft's order "is undoing Oregon's popular 
will in the most undemocratic manner possible.o.o.o. Americans in every 
corner of the nation are going to suffer needlessly."

But his Republican counterpart, Sen. Gordon Smith, said the government 
should not condone the taking of life. "This is a matter of principle, not 
a matter of politics," Smith said.

Smith said the Bush's administration had indicated that it may offer 
guidelines for using federally controlled substances for pain management.

Ashcroft based his decision on a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in May that 
said there was no exception in federal drug laws for the medical use of 
marijuana to ease pain from cancer, AIDS and other illnesses.

The court did not change state laws allowing patients to use marijuana for 
medical reasons but made the drug harder to obtain by denying patients the 
right to claim "medical necessity" as a reason to circumvent a 1970 law 
regulating controlled substances.

When Reno issued her order in 1998, she said she found no evidence the 
Controlled Substances Act law was intended to displace states as the 
primary regulators of the medical profession or override a state's 
authority to determine what constitutes a legitimate medical practice.
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MAP posted-by: Beth