X-Message-Number: 8720
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 09:41:39 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Oregon votes to keep doctor-assisted death, but....
The following wire story was issued by ASSOCIATED PRESS
(Nov 4/97; 11:50 p.m. EST)
OREGON KEEPS SUICIDE LAW
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Three years after approving the
nation's only law allowing doctor-assisted suicide,
Oregon voters soundly defeated a measure to repeal it
Tuesday.
With 51 percent of the state's precincts reporting,
Measure 51 was being rejected by 504,675 ``no'' votes,
or 60 percent, to 332,892 ``yes'' votes, or 40 percent.
The law never has been implemented because of legal
challenges, and it was considered likely that the law
would remain stalled for months or longer even if the
repeal failed.
However, an embarrassed state attorney general's office
said Tuesday evening the law actually has been in effect
since Oct. 27 and no longer is tied up by paperwork
stemming from court appeals.
But no terminally ill patients have asked for suicide
drugs, officials said, and it's expected that opponents
will file another lawsuit and block the law again before
anyone has a chance to commit suicide.
The following article appeared in the PORTLAND OREGONIAN
(Nov 4/97)
SUICIDE VOTE MIGHT NOT BE END
The law, held up for three years, is expected to face
more court challenges if Measure 51 fails
Ashbel S. Green of The Oregonian staff
If voters uphold Oregon's doctor-assisted
suicide law in today's election, it could
trigger another long legal fight that would
prevent the law from taking effect soon.
Court challenges have blocked the law for
nearly three years. Opponents, including the
National Right to Life Committee, are
expected to head back to court if Measure 51
is defeated.
"I would be shocked if they didn't," said
Garrett Epps, an associate professor of
constitutional law at the University of
Oregon, who has closely followed the issue.
Measure 51 would repeal Measure 16, which
voters approved in 1994 to allow terminally
ill and mentally competent patients the right
to request lethal drugs from a doctor.
A lawsuit by a woman with muscular dystrophy
and two doctors prevented Measure 16 from
going into effect, but the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled in February that the
plaintiffs didn't have sufficient standing to
sue.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined
to hear an appeal of that ruling, but an
injunction blocking the law still is in
effect.
If voters approve Measure 51, a legal
challenge would be moot. If the measure
fails, opponents have said they would
continue to press their case that the law is
unconstitutional on equal-protection grounds.
National Right to Life, with support from the
Oregon Catholic Conference, claimed in the
earlier lawsuit that the law had inadequate
safeguards to prevent terminally ill people
from being pressured into killing themselves.
The group also argued that the law would
force people opposed to assisted suicide on
religious grounds to participate in such ways
as transferring medical records or telling
patients about the law.
Richard Coleson, one of the lawyers who
brought the case to court, declined Monday to
reveal what opponents' next legal move might
be.
"I wouldn't guarantee what we'll do," Coleson
said. "We do believe that (the law) is
unconstitutional, and at some point somebody
will have standing to challenge it."
If the measure fails, U.S. District Judge
Michael Hogan must lift the injunction
blocking Measure 16, and he could do so as
early as Wednesday. Once that happens, it
would be at least 15 days before terminally
ill people could legally end their lives.
Measure 16 requires a 15-day waiting period
between the time a patient requests a
prescription for lethal drugs and when a
doctor can provide it.
If Coleson and other assisted-suicide
opponents want to prevent someone from using
the law, they will have to address the issue
that stopped them in the 9th Circuit Court:
finding a client who has clear standing to
sue.
Only plaintiffs who are being injured or
threatened by a law have standing to
challenge the law in court. The test exists
because the courts do not want to settle
political debates that belong in the
Legislature or on the ballot.
The 9th Circuit Court rejected the previous
case against Measure 16 after finding that
the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, the
woman with muscular dystrophy and the two
doctors, had no intention of using the law
and failed to show they had been hurt by a
law that hadn't taken effect.
"None of them had a legitimate claim of
injury," said Eli Stutsman, a lawyer for the
right-to-die group Death With Dignity, which
opposes Measure 51.
Coleson said it's difficult to establish
standing under Measure 16 because the people
most clearly injured by the law are those who
might be pressured into killing themselves.
Coleson and his co-counsel, Jim Bopp, have
said injured parties might include the
families of terminally ill people or medical
workers forced to comply with the law against
their religious beliefs.
"We think the merits are very strong,"
Coleson said. "On the other hand, the
standing problem is a rather convoluted one."
David Schuman, an Oregon deputy attorney
general, has argued on behalf of Measure 16.
He expects the opponents to get the courts to
at least delay the law again.
"Presuming they can come up with plaintiffs
who have a better shot at getting standing,
it's a fairly good bet that (Judge Hogan)
will give them the injunction again," Schuman
said.
Hogan is the only judge who has ruled on the
merits of the case, agreeing with the
plaintiffs in 1995 that it violated the U.S.
Constitution's equal-protection clause.
The 9th Circuit Court overturned Hogan, but
only on the question of standing and not the
merits.
Schuman expects another drawn-out process if
another challenge is filed.
"I think we're looking at several years," he
said.
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