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January
23, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 2Oakland,
CA
Supreme Court
sides with state’s
right to legalize assisted suicide
WASHINGTON -- In a 6-3 decision announced Jan. 17, the
nation’s highestcourt sided with the state of Oregon and against
the authority of the U.S. attorney general to prevent doctors from prescribing
life-ending drugs for terminally ill patients.
The attorney general “is not authorized to make a rule declaring
illegitimate a medical standard for care and treatment of patients that
is specifically authorized under state law,” wrote Justice Anthony
M. Kennedy for the majority in the case.
If the attorney general’s claim of authority under the Controlled
Substances Act had prevailed, the government could apply the same logic
to other types of medical judgments, Kennedy wrote.
“He could decide whethar any particular drug may be used for a particular
purpose, or indeed whether a physician who administers a controversial
treatment could be deregistered.”
Ed Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference,
said that the “narrow ruling did not address the larger issue of
‘assisted suicide’ as public policy and therefore, it clearly
should have no impact on the effort (AB 651) to legalize ‘assisted
suicide’ in California, although the proponents are citing it in
support of their stance.
“As Catholics, we believe that all human beings are made in the
image and likeness of God, and that we are stewards, not owners, of our
life.
"We also believe that we are called to community and to sharing with
each other both the joys and sorrows that life holds. We are unalterably
opposed to euthanasia or ‘assisted suicide.’”
Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of pro-life activities for the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, said his organization will ask Congress
to clarify federal drug laws so assisted suicide can be forbidden.
“The court’s decision doesn’t answer any of the legal
or moral issues but only changes the forum,” he said, moving the
issue back into Congress’ hands.
Legal groups that have opposed assisted suicide decried the high court’s
decision, saying it placed doctors in an inappropriate role.
“Doctors should not be in the business of killing people,”
said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, based
in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Said Mathew D. Staver, president of the Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel:
“When a physician participates in a person’s suicide by administering
controlled substances, the line between healer and executioner is blurred,
and the sanctity of life is lost.”
But Compassion & Choices, a Denver-based group that works on end-of-life
choices, hailed the “watershed” decision as a win for individual
rights.
“It reaffirms the liberty, dignity and privacy Americans cherish
at the end of life,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, the group’s
president.
The high court upheld a lower court ruling that former U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft could not hold Oregon physicians criminally liable for prescribing
drugs under the state’s Death With Dignity Act. Ashcroft, citing
the Controlled Substances Act, had issued a ruling that using controlled
substances for assisted suicide was not a legitimate medical practice.
Groups on both sides of the moral debate said the ruling is likely to
influence similar legislation elsewhere.
In 1994, Oregon is the first and only state to legalize physician-assisted
suicide after voters there passed the Death With Dignity Act.
The law exempts doctors from criminal or civil liability if they prescribe
lethal doses of drugs under certain circumstances.
The law took effect after a 1997 voter initiative to repeal it failed.
Since the law was enacted, about 200 people have committed suicide by
following the law’s provisions.
The law states that only people in the final stages of terminal illness
can request a doctor to prescribe lethal drugs. Doctors cannot administer
the drugs. A second doctor must confirm the diagnosis before the prescription
can be filled.
In 1997, the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to pass laws prohibiting
physician assisted suicide.
(Adelle M. Banks of Religion News Service contributed to this report.)
