X-Message-Number: 9905
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 07:05:17 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Federal attack on right to die

The following press release was issued by RELIGION NEWS SERVICE 
(June 16/98) 
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ASSISTED SUICIDE OPPONENTS GO ON THE ATTACK 
by JIM BARNETT and DAVE HOGAN 
(COPYRIGHT c.1998 Religion News Service)

WASHINGTON _ Congressional opponents, joined by Roman Catholic 
religious leaders, have launched the first volley of an attack on 
physician-assisted suicide in what could become a lengthy 
legislative battle over the same issues of morality and personal 
choice involved in the abortion debate.

The immediate target is the new state law allowing assisted 
suicide in Oregon, the only one of its kind in the nation.
Attorney General Janet Reno said Friday (June 5) that federal law 
would not prevent doctors from helping terminally ill patients 
end their lives.

But within hours of her announcement, powerful members of 
Congress said they wanted to amend federal law to prevent 
assisted suicide. First to file a bill was Rep. Henry J. Hyde, 
R-Ill., chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee and 
one of the House's staunchest opponents of legal abortion.
"I just think she's mistaken, her interpretation," Hyde said of 
Reno's opinion.

Hyde is likely to have plenty of support _ including that of Sen. 
Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who said for the first time he would vote 
for legislation that would void the Oregon assisted-suicide law.

"For me, it's a moral principle that our law should not 
artificially prolong or terminate life," Smith said in an 
interview. "Those are decisions that should be left to God or 
nature, however you choose to interpret them."

And Catholic leaders were quick to weigh in on the issue.
Cardinal James Hickey of the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., 
accused Reno and the government of advancing the "culture of 
death by facilitating the suicide of those most in need of our 
compassion" and he called on Congress to pass legislation similar 
to that proposed by Hyde.

Richard Doerflinger, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' 
top adviser on euthanasia issues, said the Justice Department 
"abdicated its responsibility to protect vulnerable people from 
deadly harm.

"Congress should address this issue quickly, making it clear 
federally regulated drugs may not be used to assist suicides," he 
said.

Hyde's bill lifts the debate over assisted suicide to the federal 
level. It could touch off an angry national argument over issues 
that until now have been most passionately raised in Oregon and 
in Michigan, where Dr. Jack Kevorkian has assisted in scores of 
suicides even without the benefit of an empowering statute.
For now, opposition seems to outweigh any congressional support 
for assisted suicide. More than 200 members of Congress have 
written to Reno in recent months, urging her to use federal 
authority to stop doctors from using the Oregon law.

Opponents hope to trump the Oregon law by invoking the federal 
Controlled Substances Act, which regulates powerful drugs like 
those used in assisted suicide. Under that law, doctors may 
prescribe such drugs only for "legitimate medical purposes."

In November, the chief of the federal Drug Enforcement 
Administration, Thomas Constantine, wrote to Hyde, saying he 
believed assisted suicide is not a legitimate purpose and doctors 
prescribing lethal doses of medicine could be punished under the 
law.

But Constantine, a career law enforcement officer, did not 
consult Reno before sending his letter. When informed of 
Constantine's action, Reno began a review that dragged on until 
Friday.

Amending the Controlled Substances Act appears to be a relatively 
easy task. Hyde's bill would revoke the prescribing privileges of 
a doctor who gives drugs to a patient for the purpose of aiding a 
suicide.

"We'll put it into statute that these controlled substances are 
not to be used for purposes of assisted suicide," said Hyde.
At a news conference, four members of the Oregon congressional 
delegation _ all Democrats _ hailed Reno's opinion on the 
Controlled Substances Act. But they also acknowledged the Oregon 
law could be in jeopardy.

"We're going to have to work very, very hard," said Rep. Peter 
DeFazio, D-Ore. "This is a very uphill battle here in Washington, 
D.C., so far for Oregon to uphold the rights of Oregonians to 
have death with dignity."

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has led the delegation's effort to 
protect the Oregon law, hinted that, if necessary, he would be 
willing to stage a filibuster on the Senate floor.

"You tell your colleagues that you plan to talk for a long, long, 
long time on the floor of the United States Senate," Wyden said.
Wyden said he voted against the assisted suicide law both times 
it was on the Oregon ballot, in 1994 and in 1997. But he said he 
objects to federal efforts to undermine the will of Oregon 
voters.

"There were no grounds for federal officials to superimpose their 
judgment on an extremely difficult issue in the judgment of the 
people of Oregon," Wyden said.

DeFazio also accused Hyde and other Republicans of playing 
politics with assisted suicide. "They're for states' rights if it 
cuts social programs which they don't like. But when the people 
of a state use their authority under the Constitution to do 
something humane ... then they're not for states' rights," he 
said.

In the Senate, Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles, R-Okla., 
was expected to introduce a measure similar to Hyde's House bill 
on Monday (June 8), a Nickles aide said. 

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