X-Message-Number: 8850
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 09:48:06 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Oregon -- Judge Hogan's last stand?

(November 25/97; 9:51 p.m. EST)

JUDGE ALLOWS ANOTHER ARGUMENT IN ASSISTED SUICIDE CASE
By CHARLES E. BEGGS
The Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- A federal judge on Tuesday allowed foes of Oregon's
assisted suicide law to make one more legal argument in their otherwise
expired lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan formally dismissed the lawsuit that
held up Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law since it was passed by
voters in 1994.

Then he told the parties they could file written briefs on whether the
court should consider an argument raised in the original lawsuit:
whether the law causes injury by stigmatizing terminally ill people.

Foes of the law argue that the law injures the terminally ill by making
those people's lives worth less by allowing them to commit suicide.

Hogan said he will decide whether the court will consider that argument
as an amendment to the original complaint once the written briefs are
submitted.

Hogan set Feb. 17 for oral arguments.

Supporters of the law contend Hogan has no authority to take up the
matter because the stigmatic injury argument was disposed of by the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"I can't imagine they would be successful," said Eli Stutsman, a
Portland lawyer for sponsors of the law.

The federals appeals court said the plaintiffs who challenged the law
did not have legal standing to contest it because the did not show they
were injured by it.

The decision overturned Hogan's ruling that had found the law
unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the appeals court ruling, so
the case came back to Hogan.

The law was passed by voters in November 1994, and the opposition
lawsuit was filed a few weeks later. Voters last month soundly defeated
a measure that would have repealed the law.

The opponents are going the stigmatic injury route in an effort to get a
plaintiff before the courts who has standing to contest the law.

"If he rules our way, presumably off we go again," said Eugene attorney
Thomas Alderman, an Oregon lawyer representing the opponents' side.

James Bopp, a National Right to Life lawyer from Indiana who is the lead
attorney on the plaintiff' side, argued that federal courts have held
that undecided issues can be considered when cases are returned to lower
courts. He participated in the court hearing by telephone.

But Steve Bushong, an assistant Oregon attorney general, said the
stigmatization argument was disposed of on appeal.

And he said the law just "gives an option, it doesn't force anyone to do
anything."

Barbara Coombs Lee, sponsor of the ballot measure that created the law,
said Hogan opposes the law and couldn't let go of the lawsuit.

"He couldn't bring himself to see this case end," she said.

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