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."