CHILLING EFFECT

PROPOSED BILL WOULD CAUSE MORE PAIN FOR TERMINALLY ILL

Congress is considering ill-advised legislation that would ban the use of
controlled drugs for physician-assisted suicide and would give the Drug
Enforcement Administration the authority to pull doctors' licenses to
prescribe for violations of the law. Passage would only discourage
physicians from prescribing powerful narcotics in doses adequate to relieve
severe chronic pain in terminally ill patients. And it would put
unnecessary federal scrutiny on medical professionals.

The American Medical Association, which properly opposes physician-assisted
suicide, is rightly against the legislation, reasoning it would result in
more patients spending their last days wracked with pain.

Doctors are concerned, for instance, that they will be penalized for
situations in which terminally ill patients in severe and chronic pain are
given massive doses of morphine, then die -- not an unexpected occurrence
in patients with incurable, fatal diseases. DEA agents are not doctors.
Let's not give them the authority to determine how much medication is
appropriate to relieve the excruciating pain of dying patients. That makes
about as much sense as giving doctors law enforcement authority to
investigate drug crimes.

Proponents of the legislation say it will improve life for terminally ill
patients because doctors will be free to prescribe controlled substances
"as medically appropriate" to relieve pain and comfort "if there is no
intent to cause a patient's death." Leaving the "if" to the DEA is the
problem, and that is what doctors legitimately fear.

It would be inhumane for doctors to err on the side of leaving terminally
ill patients in agonizing pain for fear of losing their licenses because of
some overly zealous drug agent. Congress ought to give this legislation a
lethal dose of no votes.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)