ASHCROFT SHOULD LEAVE MEDICINE TO DOCTORS

Nowhere on Attorney General John Ashcroft's official bio does it say he has a medical degree or license to practice medicine.

Yet, that is exactly what Ashcroft wants to do, judging by his attempts to thwart Oregon and California voter initiatives with widespread support in the states' medical communities. This conservative politician wants to go after doctors who assist their patients in ways that are legal in their own states but abhorrent to him.

Last week, Justice Department lawyers tried to undermine Oregon's Death with Dignity law in arguments before a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel. Ashcroft wants to revoke the licenses of doctors prescribing federally controlled substances for the purpose of euthanasia.

Oregon voters approved the assisted-suicide law, which contains several safeguards against abuse, in 1994 and affirmed it in 1997.

Oregon is the only state with an assisted-suicide law, but at least one other state, Wisconsin, is considering a similar measure.

Last fall, a 9th Circuit panel slapped down some of Ashcroft's other medical meddling, saying he had no authority to revoke the licenses of California physicians who recommended medicinal marijuana to patients under that state's voter initiative permitting the practice. Seven other states, including Washington, have similar laws.

The judges should do the same in Oregon's case. Ashcroft -- lawyer, federal administrator and politician -- should respect these state laws and leave these most intimate and important medical decisions up to the patients and the real doctors.