ASSAULT ON ASSISTED SUICIDE

One week after moving to crack down on a California law allowing the
distribution of marijuana for medical purposes, Attorney General John
Ashcroft took on the Oregon law that allows physicians to prescribe lethal
medication for terminally ill patients. Mr. Ashcroft directed federal drug
agents to revoke the licenses of any doctor who does so, even though
Oregonians upheld the law by 60 percent to 40 percent when a challenge to
it arose on their ballot four years ago. A federal judge in Portland
temporarily blocked Mr. Ashcroft, but many Oregonians remained enraged that
a state's rights administration had sought to thwart the voters' will. Sam
Howe Verhovek