TYING PHYSICIANS' HANDS

Congress Shouldn't Meddle On Calls To Ease Dying People's Pain

Medical doctors need to make decisions about medical treatment, not
politicians.

This is especially true when doctors are caring for terminally ill patients
who are suffering unbelievable pain.

Unfortunately, the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act would require the Drug
Enforcement Administration to second-guess doctors when they prescribe
drugs to relieve the intractable pain of dying patients.

The bill would be a leap backward. What is needed is to remove
second-guessing bureaucrats who interfere with doctor-patient relationships.

The bill is designed to prevent doctor-assisted suicides by requiring that
DEA agents revoke the DEA licenses of doctors whose prescriptions assist in
a patient's death.

The bill may play well on the campaign trail, but it should be rejected for
several reasons.

For starters, the Supreme Court ruled last year that the issue of
doctor-assisted suicides should be left to the states, not the federal
government. That appears to be a reasonable decision.

This bill, sponsored by Republicans Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois and Sen.
Don Nickels of Oklahoma, is a way to get around the Supreme Court decision
and place the doctor-assisted suicide issue back among Washington
politicians and bureaucrats.

The citizens and their elected representatives in the various states should
be in the best position to tackle this difficult issue.

Another, perhaps more pressing, reason to oppose this bill is the chilling
effect it will have on physicians who are asked by their terminally ill
patients for relief from unbearable pain.

Under the proposed Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act, doctors who administer
drugs to help relieve the suffering of a dying patient know they will be
second-guessed by federal agents if the patient dies, which is inevitiable
since the patients on death's door most likely need relief from agonizing
pain.

This ill-conceived bill would be a special setback for terminally ill
Texans because the Lone Star state has been in the forefront in the United
States in authorizing doctors licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners to
administer controlled and dangerous drugs to help relieve patients'
suffering. It's called the Intractable Pain Act.

Just as doctors and health-care providers are learning more about easing
the last days of dying patients, this bill would be a tragic setback.

People deserve all assistance possible to leave this life with dignity,
which is why the Congress should reject the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention
Act.