ASSISTED SUICIDE UPHELD

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge in Portland ruled Wednesday that the Bush
administration lacks the authority to overturn a voter-backed Oregon law
permitting physician-assisted suicide.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones scolded Attorney General John Ashcroft,
saying the federal government was attempting to usurp the rights of a state
when the Justice Department announced its intent to prosecute doctors who
prescribe lethal doses of drugs to their terminally ill and dying patients.

"The citizens of Oregon, through their democratic initiative process, have
chosen to resolve the moral, legal and ethical debate on physician-assisted
suicide for themselves by voting -- not once, but twice -- in favor of the
Oregon act," Jones wrote in his order.

Jones said Ashcroft attempted to "stifle an ongoing, earnest and profound
debate in the various states concerning physician-assisted suicide," and
that "with no advance warning ... fired the first shot in the battle
between the state of Oregon and the federal government."

Oregon is the first and only state to legalize physician-assisted suicide
- -- an immensely controversial practice that raises ethical, medical and
religious questions about the appropriate role for doctors in hastening or
forbidding what advocates call "an early exit." Wednesday's decision was a
clear victory for advocates of allowing doctors to prescribe drugs to
hasten an inevitable death, but this will not end the debate in the courts,
in Washington and in hospital corridors.

The Justice Department is considering an appeal, said Robert McCallum, an
assistant attorney general. It would be heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
in San Francisco, and the process would likely take about 18 months.
Meanwhile, the Oregon law remains in force, and other states are
considering similar measures.

N.C. Sen. Jim Forrester, a Gaston County Republican and a physician,
co-sponsored a bill last year that would make physician-assisted suicide a
Class D felony. The bill remains in committee.

"It was kind of brushed aside," Forrester said. He said he's "not
optimistic" the bill will be taken up in the session that begins next
month. No legislation is pending in North Carolina to make
physician-assisted suicide legal.

Andy Watry, executive director of the N.C. Medical Board that regulates
doctors, said it's an extremely difficult issue for doctors and for the
board that regulates them, he said.

"It's a tough place to be, but the physicians do need to take appropriate
care of those people. It's unacceptable to have people at that stage of
life suffer needlessly. There's a real balancing act from an enforcement
standpoint," Watry said.

The N.C. Medical Society opposes physician-assisted suicide but has not
taken a stand on whether it ought to be a crime.

Oregon voters first approved the Death With Dignity Act in 1994, and then
again three years later after a failed legal challenge.

Under that law, a patient who seeks a prescription for lethal drugs must be
shown to be mentally competent and must have, in the opinion of two
doctors, less than six months to live.

While doctors prescribe the powerful sedatives or narcotics, they are not
allowed to actually administer them to cause death. If the patient is
incapable of taking the drugs without aid, a friend or relative may help.

In the past four years, some 91 people in Oregon have chosen to end their
lives with the help of their physicians, according to records kept by the
state.

"The system has worked in Oregon," said Kathryn Tucker, one of the
attorneys who defended the law in court and the director of legal affairs
for the group Compassion in Dying Federation.

Opponents of physician-assisted suicide, however, decried the court action.

Burke Balch, a director of the National Right to Life Committee, said "the
American people do not want their federal government to facilitate
euthanasia." Balch said he was confident the decision would be reversed on
appeal.

Jan LaRue, a director of the Family Research Council, said, "medicine by
definition is the art of treating and curing. Drugs are for curing, not
killing."

During the Clinton administration, then-Attorney General Janet Reno
concluded the federal government could not bar Oregon doctors from
prescribing drugs to hasten death.

But in November, Ashcroft ordered Drug Enforcement Administration agents to
pursue cases against such doctors, arguing that the lethal prescriptions
served no "legitimate medical purpose" and violated the federal Controlled
Substances Act, whose primary purpose is to regulate drugs that can be
abused, from marijuana to prescription pain killers.

Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers immediately went to court and
challenged the so-called "Ashcroft directive," and Jones first issued a
temporary restraining order against Ashcroft in November. On Wednesday,
Jones ruled again for the state, blocking the federal government from
pursuing Oregon doctors.