ASSISTED SUICIDE

The U.S. Attorney General Should Leave The Matter To Doctors, Patients And
States

The U.S. surgeon general shouldn't make decisions about the best way to
catch terrorists. Nor should the U.S. attorney general determine the best
practice of medicine.

That is what Attorney General John Ashcroft attempted to do this month,
declaring that he knows better than physicians in Oregon when drugs serve a
"legitimate medical purpose." Ashcroft ordered the Drug Enforcement Agency
to revoke the license of doctors who prescribe drugs that terminally ill
patients can take to kill themselves under Oregon's voter-approved assisted
suicide law.

This issue is too thorny for Ashcroft to make such a unilateral decision.
The Oregon state attorney general obtained a court order to block it and
should continue this battle. States traditionally set rules governing the
practice of medicine; a good conservative such as Ashcroft shouldn't inject
the federal government into an Oregon issue.

This latest legal battle over assisted suicide wouldn't be happening if
doctors and patients were better educated about pain management and hospice
programs.

Jack Kevorkian was sought out by as many as 100 people who died in Michigan
with his help not because they liked his crude and casual methods, but
because they didn't like the alternatives they knew about.

Such knowledge can be powerful. Although 100 Oregonians have killed
themselves since the state law took effect in 1997, many patients who
obtained drugs for that purpose instead let nature take its course, simply
because they were secure in the knowledge that an option was available
should things become unbearable.

But until the system is fixed, the personal decision to take a few extra
pills should be between patients and doctors -- without bureaucrats.

The government belongs neither in the business of banning assisted suicide
nor regulating it. Congress twice failed to circumvent the will of Oregon
voters. Lawmakers realized the side effect of any regulation would likely
be more Kevorkians or more people suffering longer because doctors feared
protracted investigations.

Yet Ashcroft said Drug Enforcement Agents can easily make the "important
medical, ethical and legal distinctions between intentionally causing a
patient's death and providing sufficient dosages of pain medication."
Funny, the doctors who testified before Congress said those distinctions
aren't easy even if you have medical training.

Ashcroft is basing his quest on this year's Supreme Court ruling that said
the federal Controlled Substances Act doesn't leave room for marijuana to
be used to fight pain and other symptoms. That decision was based on an
inhumane law that should be changed.

John Ashcroft has enough on his plate fighting terrorism. He doesn't need
to declare war on the terminally ill or the doctors who try to give them a
little peace of mind at the end of their days.