AN ASSISTED-SUICIDE VERDICT

Federal Judge Robert Jones got it exactly right Wednesday when he ruled
that Attorney General John Ashcroft had overstepped his legal authority in
trying to block an assisted-suicide law in Oregon that had twice been
approved by the state's voters. The judge was especially shrewd in his
analysis of the cynical political game Mr. Ashcroft was playing in trying
to impose his own ideological beliefs by administrative fiat in a realm
where Congress had declined to exert its authority.

Oregon voters first approved an assisted-suicide law in 1994 by a narrow
margin, and reaffirmed that support three years later by a hefty 60 to 40
percent. The law is carefully constructed to allow doctors to prescribe
lethal medications for terminally ill patients only after two physicians
have certified that the patient is of sound mind and has less than six
months to live.

Conservatives in Congress tried and failed to push through legislation that
would override the Oregon law. Mr. Ashcroft stepped in last November,
ruling that the government could use the federal Controlled Substances Act
to revoke the prescription-writing privileges of any doctor who prescribed
the drugs commonly used for assisted suicide. That was a stretch, given
that the act is primarily designed to prosecute drug dealers, drug abusers
and doctors or pharmacists who divert drugs for illicit purposes — not
doctors who are practicing medicine in compliance with state law.

Judge Jones, who was appointed by the first President Bush, found nothing
in the statute or its legislative history to suggest that Congress intended
to give the attorney general "the authority to decide, as a matter of
national policy, a question of such magnitude as whether physician-assisted
suicide constitutes a legitimate medical purpose or practice." What really
happened, the judge said, is that Congressional opponents of assisted
suicide tried "to get through the administrative door that which they could
not get through the Congressional door, seeking refuge with the
newly-appointed Attorney General whose ideology matched their views."

Mr. Ashcroft is expected to appeal the decision, but if he is smart he will
give up the fight now. As the nation's top lawyer, he ought to recognize
that his manipulation of the Controlled Substances Act can only harm the
criminal justice system that he heads.