Supreme Court to review Oregon assisted suicide law

Published: 2005-02-22

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Supreme Court will review Oregon's assisted suicide law next term in a case over the Bush administration's efforts to hold physicians criminally liable for prescribing lethal doses of drugs. The court announced Feb. 22 that it would review the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last May that said the federal Justice Department has no authority to use the Controlled Substances Act to punish doctors who prescribe lethal amounts of drugs to people who wish to commit suicide. That court said former Attorney General John Ashcroft's "unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide." The Bush administration appealed, arguing that physician-assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose." Since Oregon's Death With Dignity Act took effect in 1998, more than 170 people have obtained drugs to end their own lives. Most are reported to have had cancer.

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