Federal hearing on assisted suicide law pits Oregon officials against U.S. Justice Department

Saturday, March 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - The state of Oregon faced off against the Bush administration at a hearing held by a federal judge to weigh arguments on the state's physician-assisted suicide law.

The one-day hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert Jones on Friday came after Attorney General John Ashcroft threatened to suspend or revoke the drug-prescribing licenses of Oregon doctors who dispense lethal drugs to patients who want to end their lives.

The state has argued that the federal government has no right to interfere with a measure twice approved by voters.

Oregon's Death With Dignity Act allows patients with less than six months left to live to ask a doctor to prescribe a lethal combination of drugs. The law, passed by referendum in 1994 and 1997, was the first of its kind in the nation.

In an order issued Nov. 6, Ashcroft said helping a terminally ill patient commit suicide is not a legitimate medical practice. The state immediately went to court to challenge the order, and Jones issued a temporary restraining order on Nov. 8 allowing the practice to continue for now.

Steve Bushong, an Oregon assistant attorney general, argued Friday that a state has the right to regulate medical practice as it sees fit. He also said the Justice Department should have sought public comment or debate before overriding a state law.

The order ``strikes at the heart of the will of the Oregon people,'' Bushong said.

Lawyers for the federal government argued that Washington can interpret the Controlled Substances Act to enforce drug laws uniformly and protect public health. Gregory Katsas, a deputy U.S. attorney general, said the act gives Ashcroft the authority to issue such directives.

Jones has promised to issue a ruling within 30 days, but appeals could tie the issue up for years.

At least 91 people have used the Oregon law to end their lives.

Among those at the hearing was 56-year-old James Romney, a former high school principal suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease.

He said he plans to ask his doctor for a lethal dose of drugs before the incurable disease incapacitates him, and is optimistic the law will be upheld. ``This is the right thing to do,'' he said.

On the Net:

Oregon Department of Justice

Compassion in Dying

U.S. Department of Justice