The Opinion Of The Mercury News

SUDDENLY ASHCROFT THINKS HE'S A DOCTOR

Power Play To Try To Stop Assisted Suicide In Oregon Tramples On States' Rights

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

Last week, Ashcroft ran roughshod over it. He told federal drug officials
to prosecute Oregon's 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 what Congress twice has
refused to do: ban assisted suicide nationwide.

Ashcroft can't do anything for now. Oregon's attorney general is fighting
Ashcroft's order, and a federal judge has granted a restraining order,
pending a hearing this week. 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.

Ashcroft directed the Drug Enforcement Agency to revoke licenses of doctors
who prescribe lethal doses of federally regulated drugs. He cited the
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 tramping on states' right to regulate the practice of medicine -- a
power Congress has traditionally ceded to states. It's also a selective
reading of the Supreme Court. While rejecting a constitutional right to
assisted suicide, a majority of judges 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.

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 if they can practice medicine.

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