X-Message-Number: 7858
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 12:14:41 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Oregon update

Note:  I still have not been able to ascertain a date when Measure 16 is
scheduled to go into effect.  "Maybe sometime in April" is the best I have
found.  If anyone has better info, please post.

        (March 13/97)

        House won't delay assisted-suicide law, supporters say
        LANDON HALL

         
        SALEM, Ore. (AP) _ Supporters of Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide
        law said Thursday they have assurances from key legislators that
        the law won't be delayed from taking effect.

        Opponents of the law had been hanging their hopes on a bill to
        shelve the law until July 1999 so a special legislative task force
        could further examine it.

        But Eli Stutsman, the Portland lawyer representing the law's
        backers, said members of the House committee considering the bill
        told him the measure doesn't have enough votes to clear the House.

        "They have assured us that there is not support from a majority to
        go against the will of the voters on this issue," Stutsman said.

        Measure 16 , which gives terminally ill patients the right to a
        doctor-prescribed dose of lethal medication, was narrowly approved
        by Oregon voters in 1994. The law has been in legal limbo ever
        since, but a federal appeals court upheld the law Feb. 27, meaning
        patients could begin requesting lethal prescriptions as early as
        next month.

        Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life,
        vehemently denied that support for delaying implementation of the
        law was waning.

        "I believe there are sufficient votes on both sides of the
        Legislature to pass this," she said. "The way Measure 16 is
        written, it is so flawed that it will take a legion of lawyers to
        sort it out."

        The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Family Law wrapped up three
        days of exhaustive, often emotional testimony on assisted suicide
        Thursday. In addition to the bill to delay, the committee is
        considering proposals that would impose stricter residency
        requirements, bar state money from being used for suicides, and
        punish doctors for not notifying family members of patients.

        Rep. Judy Uherbelau, one of committee's 11 members, said the House
        could adopt one or more of the amendments, but probably not a
        delay.

        "I think there's an overall sense when you have an initiative that
        has been passed, you'd better tread lightly," the Portland
        Democrat said.

        For the third straight day, the committee heard testimony from
        both supporters and detractors of assisted suicide. A woman whose
        terminally ill husband died while Measure 16 was tied up in court
        choked back tears as she described his agonizing last days.

        A Sherwood physician said he found the idea of doctor-assisted
        suicide morally and professionally repulsive.

        "It represents a complete reversal of my proper role of physician
        as healer, comforter, consoler to an improper role as destroyer,
        executioner," Dr. Kenneth Stevens said.

        But most of the two-hour hearing was devoted to the testimony of
        Thomas Marzen, a lawyer who flew in from Indianapolis to challenge
        some of the language in Measure 16 as vague and unworkable. He
        said diabetics who require insulin to live or patients on kidney
        dialysis could be considered terminal under the law because they
        would die without treatment.

        Marzen disclosed that the organization he was representing, the
        National Center for the Medically Dependent & Disabled, was funded
        by a Catholic group called the Knights of Columbus. The Knights
        contributed $100,000 to the campaign against Measure 16 in 1994.

        Stutsman, the Measure 16 attorney, said opponents like the Oregon
        Catholic Conference are staging an unwinnable, last-ditch effort
        to turn the tide of support back in their favor.

        "They lost the campaign in 1994. They lost the litigation. This is
        their third bite at the apple," Stutsman said. "I think there's a
        real sense of desperation."


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