ASSISTED SUICIDE LAWS UP TO STATES

In 1994, 51 percent of Oregon voters approved a referendum legalizing
doctor-assisted suicide in very narrow circumstances. It was a hotly
debated issue, well argued by both sides.

In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously refused to throw out the Oregon
law. "There is no reason to think the democratic process will not strike
the proper balance between the interests of terminally ill, mentally
competent individuals who would seek to end their suffering and the state's
interest in protecting those who might seek to end life mistakenly or under
pressure," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote at the time.

Later that year, Oregon voters reaffirmed their support for the law, this
time with 60 percent of the vote. Since then, opponents of the Oregon law
have tried repeatedly to get Congress to intervene, but Congress, like the
Supreme Court, has refused to do so.

Now one man, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, has stepped forward to
claim the power and moral authority to settle the question. "I hereby
determine that assisting suicide is not a 'legitimate medical purpose'" for
prescription drugs, Ashcroft wrote, thus enlisting federal power against
any Oregon doctor who dares to hasten the death of a pain-ravaged,
terminally ill patient.

Oregon officials immediately challenged Ashcroft in court, winning a
temporary delay. In addition to the Supreme Court ruling explicitly leaving
the issue to the states, they point out that the federal government has not
been given have the right to regulate the practice of medicine. That, too,
is a state function.

Physician-assisted suicide is admittedly a controversial, difficult
subject, in part because modern medicine can now stretch out a human life
to lengths previously unimagined. The Oregon law might in the end prove
unworkable, but it is clearly a carefully debated, well-conceived test of
one approach to that problem.

In time, Oregon residents may decide for themselves that their approach has
failed. Conversely, other states may use Oregon's experience to fashion
their own approaches. But no single person --- certainly no unelected
bureaucrat --- has the right to short-circuit that process to suit his own
moral sentiments.