U.S. TARGETS ASSISTED-SUICIDE LAW

Oregonians Fuming Over Federal Attempt to Overturn Measure

PORTLAND, Oregon - Oregonians have long prided themselves on being in the
forefront on many social issues -- sometimes with ideas that catch on in
the rest of the nation, and sometimes not.

They were among the first to decriminalize marijuana and to approve its use
for medicinal purposes, and they legalized abortion years before the,
Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade decision.

They were the first to conduct an election entirely by mail, and they have
long had some of the strictest growth-management regulations in the nation.

Five years ago, the people of Oregon passionately debated and narrowly
approved a measure making theirs the first state, and one of the few places
in the world, to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

Two years ago, amid legal challenges to the so-called Death with Dignity
Act, the state's residents voted 60 percent to 40 percent to reaffirm it.

On Thursday, a day after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a
measure that would effectively overturn the Oregon law and thus amounts to
an extraordinary rebuke of the popular will in a single state, even many of
those who opposed the law said they were angry over impending federal
interference.

"Why are they doing this?" asked Ronald Nelson, owner of a dance shop and
studio owner in Portland who voted twice against legalizing doctor-assisted
suicide. "The people in Oregon had a vote. I may not agree with it, but is
Congress really saying that our vote doesn't count, it doesn't matter?
That's just wrong. "

From the governor to people in the street, Oregonians were invoking the
phrase "states' rights" on Thursday, and the congressional action only
seems to have solidified the notion that the people of Oregon, arguably the
most aggressively libertarian in the country, should have the right to
decide this issue themselves,.

"There certainly is a strong libertarian impulse at work here, of people
wanting to be free to make decisions without the government coming in,"
said James Moore, a professor of political science at the University of
Portland.

"But another thing is going on right now," Mr. Moore said. "People may
fight like cats and dogs here over issues such as this, but if there is a
whiff of outside interference over these things, Oregonians will all gather
together and defend their right to fight and send a message to the outside,
that you cannot dictate to us."

For precisely that reason, he said, a referendum now on doctor-aided
suicide would probably gather even more than the 60 percent "yes" vote it
got last time.

At the same time, many Oregonians insisted that far too much was being made
of the issue by Congress. Despite predictions by critics that Oregon would
be flooded with those seeking death, they noted, just 15 people took lethal
medication last year, the first full year the measure was in effect.

In any event, resistance here to the House action is clearly strong and
intensely felt.

The state's congressional delegation, which includes several members who
voted twice against legalizing physician-assisted suicide, is staunchly
united in trying to stop the bill that passed the House on Wednesday on a
271-to-156 vote.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democrat who said he opposed the Death with
Dignity Act, has pledged to filibuster the bill in the Senate.

Governor John Kitzhaber, who is a physician, and the staff of the state
attorney general's office are exploring possible legal challenges if the
measure passes the Senate and is signed by President Bill Clinton, which
remains far from certain.

The Clinton administration, which opposes provisions of the House bill that
could force doctors to spend up to 20 years in prison for prescribing
lethal medication, is looking for ways to get the House measure revised in
the Senate, Attorney General Janet Reno said in Washington on Thursday.

And some doctors in Oregon are saying they may engage in civil disobedience
by continuing to offer mentally competent, terminally ill people lethal
prescriptions, or perhaps by legally sidestepping the measure.

Technically, the House bill does not overturn the Oregon law, though it
effectively does so by banning the use of any federally controlled
substance for the purpose of aiding suicide.