JUDGE DEFENDS OREGON ASSISTED-SUICIDE LAW

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Handing the assisted-suicide movement a major victory, a
federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department may not interfere
with Oregon's law allowing doctors to help terminally ill people kill
themselves. U.S. District Judge Robert Jones said Oregon voters decided
"not once, but twice" to support the law and "have chosen to resolve the
moral, legal and ethical debate on physician-assisted suicide for themselves."

The judge declared that Attorney General John Ashcroft had overstepped his
authority in trying to thwart the law, and he rebuked Ashcroft for trying
to "stifle" nationwide debate on the issue.

In Washington, Ashcroft said no decision has been made on whether to appeal.

Oregon's law is the only one of its kind in the country. The law, approved
by the voters in 1994 and 1997, allows the terminally ill to request a
lethal dose of drugs if two doctors confirm they have less than six months
to live and the patients are mentally competent to make the request. The
patients must take the fatal dose by themselves.

The law survived a federal court challenge, a repeal attempt and two
efforts by Congress to override it before Ashcroft challenged it in
November and set up the closely watched clash of federal and state authority.

The attorney general argued that dispensing drugs for a suicide does not
serve a "legitimate medical purpose" under the federal Controlled
Substances Act, and he issued a directive warning doctors that they would
be stripped of their licenses to prescribe federally controlled substances
- -- a move that would have essentially ended assisted suicide in Oregon.

Jones issued a temporary injunction against the attorney general last fall
and called the directive an "edict" delivered without any notice.
Wednesday, the judge made the injunction permanent.

The judge said the heart of the matter was whether Ashcroft has the
authority to decide medical practices in states.

"No provision ... demonstrates or even suggests that Congress intended to
delegate to 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," Jones said.

The judge also noted that the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in another
assisted suicide case, said states can decide the issue for themselves
without federal interference.

The ruling was praised by assisted suicide supporters, including Barbara
Coombs Lee, director of Compassion in Dying, a lawyer and former nurse who
helped draft the Oregon law. She said the ruling ensures the terminally ill
will have a choice.