X-Message-Number: 12423 Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 09:21:18 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Congress deals blow to assisted suicide The following front-page article appears in today's OREGONIAN (Weds Sept 15, 1999) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CONGRESS DEALS BLOW TO ASSISTED SUICIDE A bill that would dismantle Oregon's law is passed by a key committee but must clear several other hurdles before taking effect -------------------------------------------- By Mark O'Keefe of The Oregonian staff WASHINGTON -- A bill that would undercut Oregon's landmark physician-assisted suicide law cleared its first important hurdle Tuesday when the House Judiciary Committee passed the Pain Relief Promotion Act of 1999. The bill must still pass through several other committees and the full House and Senate and be signed by President Clinton to become law. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the Judiciary Committee's chairman and a driving force behind the bill, said the chances of that happening "are pretty good, about 60-40." The committee action Tuesday was along party lines, with the Republican majority defeating amendments to exclude Oregon from the bill and to weaken the legislation's impact on physicians. The final vote was 16-8, with no amendments attached. Thus far, much of the debate has been about states' rights and whether the federal government should step in on a law that was approved by Oregon voters in 1994 and reaffirmed in 1997. After Tuesday's committee vote, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., said that Congress had already established jurisdiction for overseeing drug use and that "Oregon still happens to be part of the Union." The bill encourages aggressive pain treatment for the terminally ill. But it cripples the use of Oregon's law by outlawing the prescribing of federally controlled drugs, such as barbiturates, specifically to assist in someone's death. All 15 of the documented patients who died under the law in 1998 used controlled substances prescribed by physicians. Under the bill, doctors would risk losing their federal prescribing privileges and, under the long-established Controlled Substances Act, might also be subject to prison terms. Democrats argued that the penalties were so severe that they would hamper end-of-life care by physicians who might be afraid to prescribe large doses of pain relievers, such as morphine, because that might be interpreted as assisting in a suicide. That's the same argument used last year when a similar bill undercutting Oregon's law passed the House Judiciary Committee but died quietly without a vote by the full House or Senate. Changes this year give the congressional legislation a better chance of succeeding. The bill amends the Controlled Substances Act to explicitly state that using controlled substances to alleviate pain and discomfort is permitted, even if such medications increase the risk of death. That, along with a commitment of $5 million in grants for medical schools and hospices to give training in end-of-life care, persuaded several leading medical organizations to support this year's bill. "This recognizes that aggressive use of pain medication may hasten death," said Dr. Thomas Reardon, president of the American Medical Association, which is supporting this year's version after opposing last year's. "That's OK, because the issue must be the intent. The intent is to treat, not to kill." Greg Hamilton of the Oregon-based Physicians for Compassionate Care agrees, saying the bill "would channel efforts into treating these people instead of ending their lives." The Oregon Medical Association and Oregon Hospice Association, however, oppose the bill, arguing that it will still have a chilling effect on physicians. So does the entire Oregon congressional delegation, with the exception of Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican, who says he's torn between defending the sanctity of life and defending Oregon's right to make its own laws without federal interference. No members of the Oregon delegation are on the House Judiciary Committee. But several have said they will try to slow progress of the bill in the House before it's seriously discussed in the Senate, where Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., says he will filibuster if necessary. Democrats from other parts of the country unsuccessfully tried to make the states' rights argument in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, decried a "Big Brother attitude" behind a bill that "will effectively snuff out the voices of people in Oregon." She said Congress should allow Oregon to serve the rest of the country as a laboratory of experimentation, putting assisted suicide into the medical mainstream as no other state has done. But after the vote, Hyde defended the idea of Congress discouraging such experimentation. "We have drug laws that are federal that cover every state in the Union," Hyde said. "I don't think this is any radical intervention. I don't think a state should be able to pre-empt federal law, especially a law that has established national standards on controlled substances." Hyde predicted that a discussion of states' rights "will be the debate" as the bill makes it way through Congress. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This message from Arizonans for Death with Dignity David Brandt-Erichsen, AzDD website manager http://www.go.to/azdd or http://www.azstarnet.com/~davidbe/hemlock Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12423