X-Message-Number: 5988 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 20:23:02 -0700 (MST) From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Ninth Circuit Court ruling Today (March 25) the State of Washington has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to try to overturn the Ninth Circuit Court ruling that legalized physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill competent adults in nine Western states. It is not known whether or not the Supreme Court will take the case. Meanwhile, the ruling will remain in effect unless a stay is asked for and granted (a rare event). Also today, Judge Michael Hogan, the Roman Catholic Judge who placed the injunction which prevented Oregon Measure 16 from going into effect, refused to grant an emergency request to lift the injunction but did schedule a hearing on the matter for April 24. The Ninth Circuit ruling stated that Judge Hogan had "erred" in his original ruling on Measure 16, but his ruling still stands because the Ninth Circuit has not specifically heard that question yet and a hearing before the Ninth Circuit still has not been set. In other related news, the Northern Territory of Australia's law on the Rights of the Terminally Ill may be delayed as well. It had been thought that the law would go into effect in late April, but now the Health Minister says that more time is needed for a program to educate people about the new law, expecially the Aboriginal community, and that the operational date could be as late as August. (David Brandt-Erichsen Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5988