X-Message-Number: 10462 Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 07:31:29 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Oregon Judge Hogan upholds law Sep23 03:13 Judge rejects legal challenge to Oregon's assisted-suicide law EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - A federal judge has rejected a challenge to Oregon's landmark doctor-assisted suicide law, saying opponents lacked legal standing to renew a failed lawsuit. The law passed by Oregon voters in 1994 and affirmed in 1997 allows terminally ill people to obtain lethal prescriptions of drugs. Since the law took effect last fall, at least eight people have used it to end their lives. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan on Tuesday said the issue being argued has been settled by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Opponents had argued that the law might not pose a direct threat of injury, but creates a "stigmatic injury" to the terminally ill by making their lives worth less than others. Hogan had overturned the law in the first round of legal challenges. He said he was forced to dismiss the latest effort because of the appeals court's decision that a plaintiff must suffer an actual injury to bring a challenge. Hogan's ruling does not end efforts to derail Oregon's law. Bills currently in Congress would prohibit the dispensing of a federally regulated drug for the purpose of assisting a suicide. The Oregon Catholic Conference, a leading opponent, "is deeply disappointed by the ruling which effectively shuts the courthouse door to plaintiffs wanting to challenge the constitutionality," said conference spokesman Bob Castagna. Barbara Coombs Lee, chief sponsor of the law, said she was pleased with Hogan's decision. She said there must be an injury to go to court "and nobody in Oregon has been injured" by the law. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message sent by Arizonans for Death with Dignity David Brandt-Erichsen, AzDD Website Manager <> or <> http://www.azstarnet.com/~davidbe/hemlock or http://www.hemlock.org/hemlock/arizona Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10462