ASSISTED SUICIDE FAILS IN MICHIGAN; MEDICAL MARIJUANA PASSES IN 2 STATES

(AP) - Michigan voters Tuesday soundly rejected a ballot measure that
would have made theirs the second state to legalize physician-assisted
suicide.

With 16 percent of the vote counted, 71 percent were voting to keep
doctors from legally prescribing lethal doses of medication for
terminally ill patients. Opponents said the vote reflected
dissatisfaction with the proposed law, not with assisted suicide.

"It may have been a different outcome if they had a very open-ended
piece of legislation that would be accessible to all suffering
patients, not just the terminally ill,'' said Dr. John Finn, executive
director of Hospice of Michigan.

Another medical question - the use of marijuana to ease symptoms for
particular illnesses - won approval in two states. Nevada passed a
constitutional amendment approving medical marijuana, pending a second
"yes'' vote in 2000. And Arizonans reaffirmed their 1996 vote to
legalize marijuana and other drugs for medical use. Exit polls there
showed voters rejecting an alternative plan by legislators to wait
until the federal government approved the drugs.

Taxes figured prominently among the 235 statewide ballot measures
Tuesday. South Dakotans rejected a plan to prevent property tax
revenues from financing schools, and Nebraskans nixed a proposal to
limit the amount of money state and local governments could raise
through taxes.

Early results showed Missouri voters amending their constitution to
legalize slot machines on casinos that float in artificial moats. They
had already approved riverboat gambling in 1992, but gambling foes
said the "boats in moats'' - 10 of the state's 16 casinos - didn't
qualify.

Missourians were also voting to outlaw animal fighting, specifically
cockfighting and bear fighting. Cockfighting was also on its way out
in Arizona, and dove hunting prevailed in Ohio, where voters turned
away a ban on the sport.

Preliminary returns from Massachusetts showed voters passing a plan to
give political candidates substantial public money if they agree to
voluntarily limit their spending and raise certain small
contributions. A similar measure is on the Arizona ballot.

Massachusetts voters also affirmed their support of the state's new
electricity deregulation deal, which opponents had said was too
friendly to utilities and would not save money for average consumers.
Californians also voted on a new deregulation system.

Other ballot initiatives included proposed bans on gay marriage,
affirmative action, forest clearcutting and animal traps.

There was also the usual sprinkling of offbeat items, like the one in
Newport, Maine, sparked by complaints about a resident's topless lawn
mowing. Voters decided whether to ask selectmen to ban display of
"female breasts ... visible from a public way.''

Washington's decision on affirmative action followed a long fight over
how to word the measure. Supporters of the practice favored the
question "Do you want to end the use of affirmative action for women
and minorities?'' But the phrasing voters saw was: "Shall government
entities be prohibited from discriminating against or granting
preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race, sex,
color, ethnicity or national origin?''

Polls taken before the election showed most Washington voters in favor
of affirmative action but supportive of abolishing programs defined as
giving "preferential treatment'' to women and minorities.

There was also history to the gay marriage vote in Hawaii. The
question first arose in 1993 when the state Supreme Court said it was
unconstitutional to refuse marriage licenses to gay men and lesbians

because that denied rights given to heterosexual Hawaiians.

In an effort to satisfy the court, lawmakers passed a bill last year
granting gay and unmarried heterosexual couples some legal rights
enjoyed by married people, hoping the court would then be unable to
find discrimination if the Legislature subsequently banned same-sex
marriage.

Alaska's vote was part of a wave of preemptive legislating that swept
the country after the Hawaii ruling as states feared they might have
to recognize gay marriages performed there. To date, 29 states have
banned gay unions, and Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act,
which denies federal recognition of gay marriage.

In Michigan, support was initially strong for physician-assisted
suicide but waned when opponents portrayed the initiative as overly
complicated and improperly shielded from government oversight. The
measure had a surprising opponent in Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has taken
part in more than 120 suicides. He said it was too restrictive. Oregon
is the only state to permit assisted suicide.

This election was Round Two for medical marijuana proponents, who ran
into legal blockades in 1996 after successful campaigns to legalize
the drug in Arizona and California. The 1998 measures in four states
and the District of Columbia were written more narrowly, specifying
the ailments that qualify and explicitly saying that marijuana was the
only drug at issue. Opponents nonetheless asserted the initiatives
were just a wedge to try to loosen the nation's drug laws and open the
door to open use of LSD and heroin.

Twenty-eight states had previously outlawed intact dilation and
extraction, a procedure that opponents call "partial birth abortion.''
Courts, however, have blocked 19 of the laws because their language
could apply to other abortions or failed to provide exceptions to save
mothers' lives.

So abortion foes in Washington rephrased their ballot language to
shift the focus from the surgical procedure to the physical state of
the mother when the pregnancy is terminated. Their initiative sought
to make it a felony to kill an infant "in the process of birth'' and
used a new term: "partial-birth infanticide.''

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady