Posted 10:30 p.m. Nov. 19
By Patrick W. Higgins
U-WIRE Washington Bureau
Attorney General John Ashcroft thwarted Oregon's assisted suicide law last week by empowering federal agents to investigate and punish doctors who prescribe lethal medications for the purpose of suicide.
The decision overrides a 1998 order from former Attorney General Janet Reno which protected Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, a law allowing physicians in Oregon to provide but not administer lethal drugs to terminally ill patients with less than six months to live.
Ashcroft based his ruling on his conservative interpretation of the 1970 federal Controlled Substances Act, a Supreme Court decision in 1997 which stated that the Constitution did not guarantee Americans the right to commit suicide, and a recent Supreme Court decision which failed to make an exception to federal law for the medical use of certain controlled substances including marijuana.
The decision, presented to Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson in a memo last week, has instigated a fierce resistance from the people of Oregon who voted in 1994 and again in 1997 in favor of the Death with Dignity Act.
"They've tossed the ballots of Oregon voters in the trash can," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told The New York Times. "They're frustrated by the inconvenience of the democratic process."
Oregon passed the law in 1997, becoming the only state to support assisted suicide. Since that time, 70 people have killed themselves via a lethal prescription provided by their attending physician.
Until last week, Oregon was the only state where DEA agents were barred from investigating physicians suspected of assisted suicide.
The ruling does not allow for criminal prosecution of Oregon doctors who are found in violation, yet it does call for the revocation of their medical licenses.
According to Ashcroft, suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" for handing out or prescribing drugs, an opinion which prompted Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers to file a lawsuit in federal court demanding protection of Oregon's laws and physicians from DEA investigations.
By Patrick W. Higgins
U-WIRE Washington Bureau
Attorney General John Ashcroft thwarted Oregon's assisted suicide law last week by empowering federal agents to investigate and punish doctors who prescribe lethal medications for the purpose of suicide.
The decision overrides a 1998 order from former Attorney General Janet Reno which protected Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, a law allowing physicians in Oregon to provide but not administer lethal drugs to terminally ill patients with less than six months to live.
Ashcroft based his ruling on his conservative interpretation of the 1970 federal Controlled Substances Act, a Supreme Court decision in 1997 which stated that the Constitution did not guarantee Americans the right to commit suicide, and a recent Supreme Court decision which failed to make an exception to federal law for the medical use of certain controlled substances including marijuana.
The decision, presented to Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson in a memo last week, has instigated a fierce resistance from the people of Oregon who voted in 1994 and again in 1997 in favor of the Death with Dignity Act.
"They've tossed the ballots of Oregon voters in the trash can," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told The New York Times. "They're frustrated by the inconvenience of the democratic process."
Oregon passed the law in 1997, becoming the only state to support assisted suicide. Since that time, 70 people have killed themselves via a lethal prescription provided by their attending physician.
Until last week, Oregon was the only state where DEA agents were barred from investigating physicians suspected of assisted suicide.
The ruling does not allow for criminal prosecution of Oregon doctors who are found in violation, yet it does call for the revocation of their medical licenses.
According to Ashcroft, suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" for handing out or prescribing drugs, an opinion which prompted Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers to file a lawsuit in federal court demanding protection of Oregon's laws and physicians from DEA investigations.
