ASHCROFT QUASHES ASSISTED SUICIDE

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft moved Tuesday to effectively
overturn Oregon's assisted-suicide law by directing federal drug
agents to investigate any doctors who help patients kill themselves
with federally controlled drugs.

Ashcroft's decision is the latest development in a long-running
political and legal battle over Oregon's one-of-a-kind law. It sparked
immediate debate about whether the prospect of a federal investigation
will discourage doctors from using drugs to aggressively treat pain.

Religious and anti-abortion organizations hailed Ashcroft's legal
opinion, while assisted-suicide advocacy groups decried it. Oregon
politicians divided largely along partisan lines.

State Attorney General Hardy Myers said he plans to file a complaint
today in federal court in Portland to block Ashcroft's order from
taking effect and to protect Oregon's law.

Gov. John Kitzhaber, a former emergency room physician, slammed
Ashcroft for going after Oregon's law at a time when the nation is
trying to cope with bioterrorism threats.

"Given everything the country is going through right now, with the
country trying to respond to anthrax, why John Ashcroft picked this
moment to inject this divisive issue into the public debate is just
beyond me," said Kitzhaber, a Democrat.

Under Oregon's law, approved by voters in 1994 and again in 1997, a
doctor may prescribe a lethal dose of prescription drugs for a
terminally ill patient to hasten death. Each month, on average, one to
three Oregonians take their lives with the help of doctors. Ashcroft's
decision, outlined in a memo to the Drug Enforcement Agency, overturns
a ruling by his predecessor, Janet Reno. He based it in part on a
unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May involving medical
marijuana. The high court said there is no exception in federal drug
law that allows the use of marijuana as a medicine.

"I hereby determine that assisting suicide is not a 'legitimate
medical purpose' ... and that prescribing, dispensing, or
administering federally controlled substances to assist suicide
violates" the Controlled Substances Act, Ashcroft wrote.

Doctors who assist suicides with federally controlled drugs could lose
their federal licenses to prescribe such drugs, he said.

Mike Mosman, U.S. attorney for Oregon, said federal authorities will
not go after doctors for past acts, but will pursue violations that
occur after Ashcroft's decision becomes effective. He predicted that
the main effect of the ruling will be to deter doctors from
prescribing drugs for assisted suicide.

"Far and away, most doctors when informed it violates federal law ...
will simply choose not to do that anymore," he said.

Doctors who are not assisting suicide but are aggressively treating
pain "shouldn't feel there will be a lot of second-guessing about
decisions of pain management," he said.

But Bob Dernedde - executive director of the Oregon Medical
Association, which has taken a neutral position on doctor-assisted
suicide - believes otherwise.

Historically, federal authorities have ceded the regulation of
doctors' prescribing practices to state boards of medical examiners,
he said. Ashcroft's ruling represents a dramatic change, he said.

"This sheds a whole new light on the practice of medicine," Dernedde
said. "Just the fear of an investigation is going to have an
incredible impact on the medical community's ability to appropriately
prescribe for pain."

Religious and anti-abortion groups praised Ashcroft for doing the
right thing and disputed the idea that doctors would withhold needed
pain medication out of fear.

Gayle Atteberry of Eugene, executive director of Oregon Right to Life,
noted that Ashcroft specifically said that pain management is
protected and promoted as proper medical treatment.

"This decision is going to promote good management by doctors," she
said. "Drugs should be used to cure and relieve pain, not to kill."

Groups that support doctor-assisted suicide said they would join in
the state's legal challenge.

"It's unwarranted. It's heavy-handed. It's ripe for challenge," said
Barbara Coombs Lee, president of the national Compassion in Dying
Federation and the original petitioner for Oregon's law.

U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith was the lone Oregon politician to support the
decision. Kitzhaber, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, and all five
Oregon House members criticized Ashcroft's ruling.

Smith, a Republican up for re-election in 2002, repeated his
long-standing opposition to assisted suicide and his support for pain
relief. President Bush went on record against assisted suicide when he
was running for president, so Ashcroft's decision should come as no
surprise to anyone, he said.

"It was inevitable as the administration got staffed up that they
would enforce the Controlled Substances Act as it had been enforced
for 30 years prior to Janet Reno," Smith said. Even though a majority
of Oregon voters twice approved assisted suicide, state law cannot
override federal law, he said.

"Ever since Lee met Grant at Appomattox, states have not been
permitted to rewrite federal law," he said. "This is about a federal
law that takes an act of Congress to change."

Wyden, who led opposition to Senate Republicans' efforts to repeal
Oregon's law in 1999 and 2000, called Ashcroft's decision
"undemocratic" and a "back-door attempt" to overturn Oregon's law. He
predicted that the decision would be overturned in court.

"Instead of attempting to change the federal law in Congress, the
administration has appeased the far right by offering up an
administrative solution which will be struck down by the courts," said
Wyden's chief of staff, Josh Kardon.

The four Democrats and one Republican in Oregon's House delegation,
including Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, all issued statements
criticizing Ashcroft's decision.

"This is an outrageous infringement upon states' rights," DeFazio
said. "Not only does the attorney general's decision overturn the will
of Oregon voters, it inevitably has a chilling effect on pain
treatment all over the country."

Doctor-Assisted Suicide

Oregon voters narrowly passed the doctor-assisted suicide initiative
in 1994, then passed a legislative referendum affirming it by a wider
margin in 1997.

Under the law, a patient must make two spoken requests and one written
request, then get a second doctor's opinion before receiving a lethal
prescription. Doctors must determine that a patient is indeed
terminally ill and not suffering from a psychological disorder.
Doctors may prescribe, but not administer, the drugs.

In 1998, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said federal drug agents
could not move against Oregon doctors who prescribed lethal doses of
prescription drugs under the assisted-suicide law. Congress passed the
Controlled Substances Act to curb drug trafficking and the abuse of
stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens, not to regulate the
practice of medicine, she said. Tuesday's decision overturns Reno's
ruling.

From 1998 to 2000, 70 dying Oregonians killed themselves with the aid
of a doctor. State health officials have not released numbers for
2001, but say they are on par with previous years.