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To: Lane3 who wrote (11026)	4/29/2002 11:52:04 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 21057

US News -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 9, 2001 Ashcroft: No Federal Drugs Can be Used in Assisted Suicides Washington, DC -- Reversing the policy of his predecessor who supported Oregon's first-in-the-nation law legalizing assisted suicide, Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Tuesday doctors may not dispense federally controlled drugs to help terminally ill patients die. Overturning the policy adopted by Attorney General Janet Reno in 1998, Ashcroft sided with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which had long argued that doctors who prescribe drugs under Oregon's assisted-suicide law could lose their licenses to write prescriptions. While physicians are licensed by the states to practice medicine, the DEA registers doctors to prescribe drugs and the agency is responsible for enforcing the federal controlled substances law. Reno had rejected the DEA position, but Ashcroft said the DEA had been correct."I have concluded that the DEA's original reading of the (law) -- that controlled substances may not be dispensed to assist suicide -- was correct," Ashcroft said in a memo to Asa Hutchinson, the DEA administrator. Ashcroft said controlled substances may be used to manage pain. "Pain management, rather than assisted suicide, has long been recognized as a legitimate medical purpose justifying physicians' dispensing of controlled substances," he said. "There are important medical, ethical and legal distinctions between intentionally causing a patient's death and providing sufficient dosages of pain medication necessary to eliminate or alleviate pain," Ashcroft said. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber denounced the decision as an "unprecedented federal intrusion on Oregon's ability to regulate the practice of medicine." Oregon's attorney general vowed to challenge Ashcroft's decision in federal court on Wednesday by filing motions to block federal agents from taking action against doctors who help patients die under the state law. "One action seeks to overturn the Ashcroft opinion. The other seeks a temporary restraining order that would allow Oregon doctors to continue" to act under the state law, said Kevin Neely, a spokesman for state Attorney General Hardy Myers. "This is a complete reversal of what Reno said," Neely added. "But we are confident we will win the reversal." Pro-Life groups, which boosted Ahscroft during his nomination, hailed the decision. ``We felt that Reno had set up a very improper and bizarre situation that had the act of killing patients with federal substances illegal in 49 states'' but not in Oregon, said David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. At least 70 terminally ill people have ended their lives since the Oregon law took effect in 1997, according to the Oregon Health Division. All have done so with a federally controlled substance such as a barbiturate. Under the law, doctors may provide - but not administer - a lethal prescription to terminally ill adult state residents. It requires that two doctors agree the patient has less than six months to live, has voluntarily chosen to die and is able to make health care decisions. A spokesman also indicated President Bush's support for the pro-life decision. White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said President Bush had made it clear he opposed Oregon's law. ``The president believes we must value life and protect the sanctity of life at all stages,'' Lisaius said. Ashcroft based his decision on a Supreme Court ruling on May 14 that there was no exception in the federal drug law for the medical use of marijuana and that federal law may not be overridden by the legislative decisions of individual states. "I hereby determine that assisting suicide is not a 'legitimate medical purpose' within the meaning of (the law) and that prescribing, dispensing or administering federally controlled substances to assist suicide violates" federal law, Ashcroft said. The American Medical Association agreed with the decision saying, "Today's action makes a strong statement against physician-assisted suicide without hampering a physician's ability to aggressively relieve patient pain." Ashcroft said there was no change in DEA policy in states other than Oregon. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said Ashcroft's order ``is undoing Oregon's popular will in the most undemocratic manner possible. But his Republican counterpart, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) said the government should not condone the taking of life. ``This is a matter of principle, not a matter of politics,'' Smith said. Smith said the Bush administration has indicated it may offer guidelines for using federally controlled substances for pain management. princeton.edu