ASHCROFT CHALLENGES ASSISTED SUICIDE LAW

DEA Ordered To Check Oregon Doctors

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft sought to override the nation's
only assisted suicide law Tuesday, 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 the
Oregon law, face suspension or revocation of their licenses to prescribe
drugs, Ashcroft said in a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration chief
Asa Hutchinson.

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, who prohibited 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.

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

But some religious groups and anti-abortion organizations hailed the move
by Ashcroft , whose nomination as attorney general nearly was scuttled by
critics who said his strong conservative views would color his judgment.

"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'Sheen, executive director of the
National Right to Life Committee.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said President Bush had made it clear 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 ended their lives after the law took
effect in 1997, according to the Oregon Health Division. All did 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," Oregon Medical Association Executive
Director Robert Dernedde said. "Appropriate pain management is going to be
compromised."