Pubdate: Thu, 18 Apr 2002
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
Note: Times staff writer Eric Lichtblau in Washington contributed to this 
report.

U.S. CANNOT BLOCK OREGON SUICIDE LAW, JUDGE RULES

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Atty. Gen. John 
Ashcroft overstepped his authority in attempting to sanction doctors who 
prescribe lethal drugs under Oregon's landmark assisted-suicide law.

In an opinion that upheld the state's case on every point, U.S. District 
Judge Robert Jones issued a permanent injunction shielding the statute and 
said Congress never intended the attorney general to decide what 
constitutes "legitimate medical practice" in individual states.

"To allow an attorney general--an appointed executive whose tenure depends 
entirely on whatever administration occupies the White House--to determine 
the legitimacy of a particular medical practice . . . would be 
unprecedented and extraordinary," the judge wrote. Jones went a step 
further, accusing congressional opponents of going to the Bush 
administration for help when they failed to win support in Congress for a 
ban on physician-assisted suicide. "Certain congressional leaders made a 
good-faith effort to get through the administrative door what they could 
not get through the congressional door, seeking refuge with the newly 
appointed attorney general, whose ideology matched their views, and this is 
precisely what occurred."

Ashcroft's Nov. 6 directive, which found doctors who prescribe drugs to 
hasten the death of terminally ill patients in violation of the federal 
Controlled Substances Act, "is not entitled to deference under any 
standard, and is invalid," Jones said.

"The fact that opposition to assisted suicide may be fully 
justified--morally, ethically, religiously or otherwise--does not permit a 
federal statute to be manipulated from its true meaning to satisfy even a 
worthy goal."

The Justice Department stood behind its decision, saying it is convinced 
that a ban on the use of federally controlled drugs to assist in suicides 
is the "correct" policy. Although the department said it is still reviewing 
the decision, sources familiar with the case said a decision to appeal 
already has been made.

"A just and caring society should do its best to assist in coping with the 
problems that afflict the terminally ill. It should not abandon or assist 
in killing them," Assistant Atty. Gen. Robert McCallum said in a statement 
Wednesday. "Doctors should not use controlled substances to assist suicide. 
Instead, they should be encouraged to use them for pain control, which is 
one of the most important positive alternatives to suicide."

Ashcroft said, "We'll make decisions about what our response is when we 
have an opportunity to digest the opinion."

Proponents of the Oregon law said the ruling is so narrow that it almost 
certainly will withstand an appeal. It never addressed questions of whether 
there is a constitutional right to assisted suicide but instead focused 
squarely on whether the federal law that regulates drug abuse can be 
applied to the assisted-suicide statute.

Under Ashcroft's directive, doctors who prescribed fatal doses for their 
patients stood to have their licenses revoked, based on the attorney 
general's finding that assisted suicide does not fall within the scope of 
"legitimate medical practice" covered in the statute for federally 
registered drugs.

"The ruling today respects and secures the right of dying Oregonians to 
make their own decisions," said Estelle Rogers, executive director of the 
Death With Dignity National Center, which has been a strong proponent of 
the Oregon law. "Secondly, today's ruling also protects the ability of 
physicians nationwide to provide adequate and appropriate pain care to 
their terminally ill patients, without fear that the [Drug Enforcement 
Administration] will second-guess their intent and punish them."

It was on that issue that the California Medical Assn. filed a 
friend-of-the-court brief, and CMA President John Whitelaw, a Sacramento 
physician, applauded the court's ruling. "While CMA does not support 
physician-assisted suicide, we feel that this directive by Atty. Gen. John 
Ashcroft would grossly interfere in the doctor-patient relationship and 
would unnecessarily interfere with patients' ability to receive adequate 
pain relief during end-of-life care," Whitelaw said.

But opponents said the ruling blocked the federal government's legitimate 
attempt to prevent abuses in the care of the terminally ill. They have 
expressed fears that assisted suicide will be used by patients who are 
depressed or who have become a burden to their families.

"The opponents of physician-assisted suicide continue to be concerned that 
this right to die, no matter how well intentioned or well conceived, will 
over time become the duty to die," said Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, 
representing Oregon Right to Life. "And as time goes on, that duty will 
disproportionately fall on the poor and the dispossessed, and my clients 
are not going to stand by and see that kind of cultural and social suicide 
without trying to stop it."

National Right to Life Committee attorney James Bopp Jr. said the U.S. 
Supreme Court, rejecting parts of California's medical marijuana initiative 
last year, already has said that states do not have authority over what 
constitutes legitimate medical uses of federally controlled drugs.

"If using marijuana for glaucoma is not permitted by the Supreme Court, 
under the pretext of medical care, I just don't see how killing patients 
can be justified," Bopp said.

Oregon's assisted-suicide law took effect in 1997 in response to a state 
ballot initiative. Through 2001, 141 prescriptions were issued, resulting 
in 91 physician-assisted deaths. Many others died without using their 
prescriptions.

Nine patients still have prescriptions for assisted suicide but have not 
taken the drugs, according to George Eighmey, executive director of 
Compassion in Dying of Oregon, which helps patients seeking to use the law. 
About a dozen others sought prescriptions but had not obtained them, 
perhaps in some cases because Ashcroft's directive left doctors uncertain.

"I was devastated by Ashcroft's ruling five months ago. Today, I feel 
liberated again," said Jim Romney, 57, a former high school principal and 
superintendent who has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Richard Holmes, a 72-year-old retired salesman who is dying of cancer, 
already has a lethal prescription. "If I get in a lot of pain and 
suffering, I may use the medication. I may not. I don't know whether I'm 
brave enough to do it, but if I am brave enough, I've got the right."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex