On October 5, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Gonzales v. Oregon. On the surface, this case is about the legitimacy of physicians' prescribing of medications under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and whether the federal government can overrule the states in defining "legitimate medical practice." Just beneath the surface, however, lies the risk of empowering agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) - whose traditional role is to prevent drug abuse and diversion - to evaluate the end-of-life practices of physicians whose patients die while receiving prescribed opioids or barbiturates. A finding in favor of the Justice Department would not only nullify the Death with Dignity Act, permitting the DEA to penalize physicians for providing medications to hasten the deaths of terminally ill patients, but also have a chilling effect on physicians' willingness to treat patients' terminal symptoms.

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