Pubdate: Sat, 17 Nov 2001
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard
Contact:  http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362
Author: Tim Christie
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John)

STATE LAWYERS PRESS DEFENSE OF SUICIDE LAW

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft overstepped his authority and 
that of the federal government when he moved to derail Oregon's 
doctor-assisted suicide law, lawyers for the state argued Friday.

Federal lawyers, meanwhile, argue that Oregon has no legal standing 
to challenge Ashcroft's Nov. 6 directive, and that the attorney 
general has legal authority to decide how federal drug law will be 
enforced.

The arguments were made in briefs filed Friday in U.S. District Court 
in Portland in preparation for a hearing Tuesday before federal Judge 
Robert Jones.

Jones issued a temporary restraining order against Ashcroft on Nov. 
8, two days after the nation's top law enforcement officer authorized 
federal drug agents to investigate and suspend the federal licenses 
of doctors who prescribe federally controlled drugs to help 
terminally ill patients end their lives.

State Attorney General Hardy Myers and his lawyers will ask Jones on 
Tuesday to grant a preliminary injunction - in effect, to put 
Ashcroft's order on ice until a lawsuit against the federal 
government is decided. The suit was filed by Myers and joined by four 
dying patients, a doctor and a pharmacist.

The case is expected to spend three to four years in the courts and 
likely will land before the U.S. Supreme Court, said George Eighmey, 
executive director of Compassion in Dying, an Oregon group that 
supports doctor-assisted suicide.

Ashcroft's directive, in which he found that assisted suicide is not 
a "legitimate medical purpose" under the federal Controlled 
Substances Act, effectively blocked Oregon's voter-approved law, the 
only one of its kind in the nation.

It sparked an uproar of criticism from doctors' groups, many of the 
state's politicians and groups that support the law. They said the 
policy stomped on the will of Oregon voters and would discourage 
doctors from aggressively treating pain in dying patients.

Religious and anti-abortion groups hailed the new policy, noting that 
Ashcroft specifically said that pain management is protected and 
promoted as proper medical treatment.

To prevail Tuesday, Oregon's lawyers have to show first that they 
have a legitimate shot at ultimately winning the case, and second, 
that irreparable harm will occur if the injunction is not granted.

"Hopefully the judge will agree that in terms of physician-assisted 
suicide, not granting the injunction would be irreparable harm," said 
Kevin Neely, spokesman for the state Justice Department. "The 
injunction is critical for the citizens of Oregon because the harm 
done is harm we will not be able to change."

In the brief filed Friday, Oregon's lawyers argued that Congress did 
not intend to give the U.S. attorney general authority to decide 
whether a state's medical practices were legitimate - and even if it 
wanted to, Congress has no constitutional authority to regulate the 
medical practices of Oregon doctors.

The brief filed by the U.S. Justice Department was not made available 
Friday. Susan Dryden, the department's deputy director of public 
affairs in Washington, D.C., did not return phone calls from The 
Register-Guard.

In an earlier brief and in court, federal attorneys argued that the 
greater harm would result if Ashcroft's order was put on hold because 
Oregonians would continue to die from assisted suicide. Jones 
rejected that argument, noting that, because Ashcroft's new policy 
was based on a legal opinion dated June 29, the matter must not be 
that urgent to the Bush administration.

The federal attorneys also argue that Oregon has no standing to 
challenge Ashcroft's directive.

They say the Controlled Substances Act authorized the attorney 
general to write and enforce any rules necessary to enforce the law. 
And they say that Congress in 1984 amended the law to strengthen the 
ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration to control 
prescription drugs.
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