HR 2260 IS POOR MEDICINE FOR THE ILL

Sometimes laws aren't what they seem.One such law is House Resolution
2260, by Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, which is supposed to save lives
but could end up harming more people than it helps. Yesterday the
House of Representatives passed it, 271-156. It will now be up to the
Senate to stop this bad law.

HR 2260 would require that the FDA ban the use of pain medication for
assisted suicide. It is aimed to counteract Measure 16, a 1994 Oregon
initiative that allows assisted suicide in that state.

We oppose assisted suicide and wrote against an initiative similar to
Oregon's, Proposition 161, when it was on the California ballot in
1992 and which lost in our state. But HR 2260 is the wrong way to go
about preventing assisted suicides in Oregon and elsewhere.

HR 2260 states, "Alleviating pain or discomfort in the usual course of
professional practice is a legitimate medical purpose for the
dispensing, distributing or administering of a controlled substance
that is consistent with public health and safety, even if the use of
such a substance may increase the risk of death."

That seems to allow physicians wide leeway in legitimately giving
patients pain drugs. "That part is OK," Dr. Harvey Rose told us; he's
a medical doctor in Carmichael who has spent two decades fighting to
give suffering patients adequate pain relief.

But HR 2260 also states, "Nothing in this section authorizes
intentionally dispensing, distributing or administering a controlled
substance for the purpose of causing death or assisting another person
in causing death."

This other part of the law "leaves it vague," Dr. Rose said. "If you
give somebody some pain medicine and he takes too many pills and dies,
who's going to determine if it was given to relieve pain and suffering
- - or to die? If doctors don't feel safe, they'll hold back in
prescribing adequate pain relief.

They'll worry about some bureaucrat considering it too much. Doctors
don't want to defend themselves so they'll cut back on prescribing" to
avoid dealing with bureaucrats or potential legal action.

That could well mean more suffering for patients.

And if patients can't get adequate pain relief, even those who
otherwise never would commit suicide, might consider doing so - to get
rid of the pain, Dr. Rose believes. "It's the law of unintended
consequences," he said. In Congress yesterday, Rep. Steven Rothman of
New Jersey pleaded, "There is already an undertreatment of pain in
America. Don't make it worse."

It's also ironic that conservatives in Congress such as Rep. Hyde are
eager to increase the powers of the federal government over the state
governments. He long has objected to the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion
decision, which eliminated all state abortion laws in favor of federal
standards established by the Supreme Court. How is HR 2260's
federalization of pain prescription rules any less a usurpation of
state laws?

California's two senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, should
now work to defeat this bill. It's not really pro-life, but possibly
might cost more lives than it potentially could save.

It might inhibit doctors from prescribing pain medication. And it
gives more new powers to the already overpowering federal bureaucracy.