X-Message-Number: 8831 Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 10:30:50 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Oregon update The Oregonian newspaper reports November 24, 1997 Judge back in spotlight on assisted suicide U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan will revisit the controversial issue in a hearing Tuesday in Eugene Ashbel S. Green of The Oregonian staff This week, the focus on physician-assisted suicide shifts from Washington, D.C., to Eugene. While U.S. Justice Department lawyers mull over Oregon's assisted-suicide law, a federal judge in Eugene will hold a status conference Tuesday on a dismissed lawsuit that prevented the law from taking effect for nearly three years. The hearing could involve routine paper-shuffling. Or it could mark the start of another drawn-out court battle. Nobody knows which, except possibly U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan, and he's not talking. But his vehement 1995 ruling against Oregon's assisted-suicide law, even though a higher court reversed him, has created an air of apprehension about Tuesday's hearing. "We're all trying to figure it out," said Charles F. Hinkle, an attorney for Right to Die. "Judge Hogan is sort of a wild card." In 1994, Oregon voters approved Measure 16, the Death With Dignity Act. But opponents challenged the law in court, and Hogan in 1995 declared it unconstitutional. [Hogan is a Roman Catholic and is personally vehemently opposed to assisted suicide.] A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned Hogan earlier this year. And in October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case. The hearing is for the 9th Circuit decision, which held that the plaintiffs had no standing to challenge the law. The plaintiffs, a woman with muscular dystrophy and two doctors, did not have standing to sue because they were not personally harmed by Oregon's assisted-suicide law, the panel ruled. According to Measure 16 supporters, that gives Hogan irtually no leeway to do anything other than formally dismiss the case. "Our assumption is that the case will be dismissed because that is what the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered," said Stephen K. Bushong, an assistant Oregon attorney general. But opponents of assisted suicide are trying to use the hearing to resuscitate their case. And they have said that if they fail, they might recruit new plaintiffs to challenge the law. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8831