High court to rule on assisted suicide case
- Feb 28, 2005 - comment
The Supreme Court will decide if the federal government can prevent drugs from being used in assisted suicides.
The high court announced Feb. 22 it would review a lower court decision last year that blocked a Department of Justice ban on the use of federally regulated drugs in physician-assisted suicides in Oregon, which is the only state in which the practice is legal. The justices will hear oral arguments in Gonzales v. Oregon during the next term, which begins in October.
The Department of Justice appealed a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft did not have the authority to bar the use of federally controlled drugs in helping patients take their lives. In May 2004, a three-judge panel of the appeals court voted 2-1 to uphold a federal judge’s injunction blocking enforcement of the Ashcroft directive.
Ashcroft resigned after November’s elections, and Alberto Gonzales was sworn in as attorney general in mid-February.
In November 2001, Ashcroft ruled the use of drugs regulated by the federal Controlled Substances Act in performing assisted suicides is not permitted. Though his directive did not overturn Oregon law, it meant physicians who prescribe or pharmacists who distribute federally controlled substances to aid in suicide may have their licenses to prescribe and dispense such drugs rescinded. In so doing, Ashcroft reversed a ruling by his predecessor, Janet Reno.
The controversy over the use of federally regulated drugs in assisted suicides began in 1997, when the Death With Dignity Act made it legal for a person to request a prescription for drugs to take his life when he is judged by two doctors to have less than six months to live. Through 2003, 171 people had died by assisted suicide in Oregon since it was legalized.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, End-of-Life Issues, Suicide