ASHCROFT ATTACKS OREGON'S SUICIDE LAW

WASHINGTON -- Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft on Tuesday directed U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration agents to go after Oregon doctors in
assisted-suicide cases, saying it is against federal law to dispense
or use controlled medications to help a terminally ill patient die.

The move by Ashcroft, a strident critic of assisted suicide, was aimed
at overruling an Oregon law that allows doctors to help patients who
want to hasten their deaths.

Ashcroft's memo specifically allows for the revocation of drug
prescription licenses of doctors who participate in an assisted
suicide using federally controlled substances. His directive did not
authorize criminal prosecution of those doctors. In a memo to DEA
Administrator Asa Hutchinson, Ashcroft said that assisted suicide is
not a "legitimate medical purpose" for prescribing, dispensing or
administering federally controlled substances. He said that the use of
such drugs by physicians to manage patients' pain is medically valid.

The action reignited the national debate over assisted suicide. It
drew praise from anti-abortion groups and criticism from those who
support doctors' efforts to help patients who want to take a cocktail
of barbiturates to end their pain and suffering.

Ashcroft's directive reverses a June 1998 declaration by his
predecessor, Janet Reno. She barred federal agents from moving against
doctors who, in keeping with the requirements of Oregon's
assisted-suicide law, help terminally ill patients end their lives.
That law was passed by voters in 1994, but because of court battles
did not take effect until October 1997.

Within hours of Ashcroft's announcement, Oregon officials vowed to go
to court to obtain an injunction blocking the directive. Supporters
and opponents alike predicted that the Supreme Court would ultimately
decide the matter.

"It's beyond my comprehension why, in the face of what's happening in
the world today, that this would be a priority of any type for our
attorney general," said George Eighmey, executive director of the
Compassion in Dying Federation in Oregon.

The Oregon group was one of many that said Ashcroft's directive would
have a chilling effect on doctors nationwide over fears that their
prescription decisions will be second-guessed by drug agents with no
medical expertise.

Critics of assisted suicide, including anti-abortion organizations and
some religious groups, hailed Ashcroft's action. Some said it would
protect the elderly and infirm in Oregon from pressure to take their
own lives.

"This is a carefully crafted ruling that reassures doctors about their
ability to prescribe federally controlled drugs to relieve pain while
ensuring that the federal government does not facilitate assisted
suicide," said Burke Balch, director of medical ethics at the National
Right to Life Committee.

Balch said the only doctors who will face increased scrutiny are those
who fill out state paperwork admitting that they have participated in
an assisted suicide.

"It's not like the DEA is going in anywhere, trying to second-guess
doctors," Balch said.

Neither the attorney general nor his aides commented publicly on the
directive, which resembled a legal brief and contained little in the
way of explanation or Ashcroft's reasons for issuing it.

"We're letting the memo speak for itself," said one Justice Department
official.

Ashcroft's memo cited the Supreme Court's ruling in a medical
marijuana case earlier this year that federal law regulating
controlled substances is uniform throughout the United States, and
cannot be superseded by state law.

Therefore, Ashcroft concluded, Oregon's law permitting doctor-assisted
suicide is now legally out of step with the law of the land.

Ashcroft told Hutchinson that drug agents around the nation,
particularly in Oregon, should resume enforcement of a DEA policy
prohibiting the dispensing of controlled substances to assist
suicides. Hutchinson said in a statement that he will instruct agents
to do so immediately.

"I am pleased that this issue has been clarified for the American
public," said Hutchinson, until recently a GOP congressman from
Arkansas. "DEA will continue to maintain consistency in striking the
balance between relieving pain and preventing the abuse of pain
medication."

Under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, doctors may provide--but not
administer--a lethal prescription to terminally ill adult state
residents. The law requires the assessment of two physicians that the
patient has less than six months to live, has chosen to die
voluntarily and is able to make health care decisions.

Seventy Oregon residents have used the law to end their lives. Another
half dozen or so patients have completed the application process and
have their prescriptions in hand; a few dozen more are in the middle
of the application process and could be affected by Ashcroft's directive.

Barbara Coombs Lee of Compassion in Dying Federation said the
relatively small number of suicides has disproved opponents'
predictions that the law would cause a dramatic increase in suicides.
"We now have four years of very careful implementation during which we
have only seen a few people use the law under extraordinary and
compelling circumstances," she said.

She rejected Ashcroft's linking of the assisted-suicide issue with the
medical marijuana case, in which the Supreme Court essentially put an
Oakland "buyers' club" out of business.

In its ruling in May, the court said there is no exception in federal
drug laws for the medical use of marijuana to ease pain from cancer,
AIDS and other illnesses.

"It's easy to distinguish the federal government's ability to put
these buyer clubs out of business from what the federal government is
trying to do in this case, which is override state determination of
what is [a] legitimate medical purpose for medication already in
common use and under regulation by the state," Lee said. "Marijuana is
not a medication in common use."

Oregon officials plan to argue that Ashcroft's directive would have
"dramatic and irreversible repercussions on the state," said Kevin
Neely, spokesman for the Oregon attorney general's office. He said
state lawyers would go to U.S. District Court in Portland today to
seek a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to bar
enforcement of Ashcroft's directive.

"Today's Department of Justice decision was inevitable, as it simply
restated federal law," said Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, an opponent
of the state law.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, who blocked legislation in Congress that
would have outlawed assisted suicide, accused Ashcroft of ignoring the
will of the state's voters and of compromising medical care throughout
the country.