ASHCROFT TRAMPLES ON STATES' RIGHTS

Attorney General John Ashcroft fervently defends the principle of states'
rights - until it no longer suits his purpose.

Last week, he ran roughshod over it. He told federal drug officials to
prosecute Oregon doctors who prescribe drugs in accordance with that
state's physician-assisted suicide law.

In doing so, he dismissed the will of Oregon voters, who twice passed
referendums establishing assisted suicide. He disregarded the intent of the
U.S. Supreme Court, which said that states can decide the issue for
themselves. And he took it upon himself to try to do what Congress twice
has refused to do: ban assisted suicide nationwide.

Mr. Ashcroft can't do anything for now. Oregon's attorney general is
fighting Ashcroft's order, and the issue is being pushed and pulled in the
court system. But many Oregonians are angry at Ashcroft's power play.

Oregon is the only state to permit assisted suicide. Since the law took
effect four years ago, 70 terminally ill people - fewer than 20 per year -
have ended their lives with narcotics prescribed by physicians. Only
individuals with less than six months to live, judged mentally competent by
two doctors, are eligible for assisted suicide under the law.

Mr. Ashcroft directed the Drug Enforcement Administration to revoke the
licenses of doctors who prescribe lethal doses of federally regulated
drugs. He cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that the federal government
can override state laws permitting the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

But that decision, dealing with illegal drugs, provides a thin rationale
for trampling on a state's right to regulate the practice of medicine - a
power that Congress traditionally has ceded to states.

It's also a selective reading of the Supreme Court. While rejecting a
constitutional right to assisted suicide, a majority of justices said in a
1997 ruling that states should have latitude to permit assisted suicide.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor cited the benefit of having states serve as a
"laboratory" on difficult issues.

Mr. Ashcroft instructed the drug agency to pursue only those doctors who

prescribed drugs to intentionally cause death, not those who may have
hastened death in an effort to relieve pain. But Oregon's doctors have
cause for worry if drug agents start looking over their shoulders, deciding
how - and whether - they can practice medicine.

Given current events, Mr. Ashcroft should be directing all his energy
toward fighting terror, not terrifying doctors in Oregon who are complying
with the public's will and their patients' wishes.