WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal appeals court has stopped Attorney General John Ashcroft's attempt to override an Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicides.
A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled May 26 that Ashcroft overstepped his authority when he declared doctors who prescribe lethal drug doses, which are legal in Oregon, to be in violation of a 1970 federal drug law. Ashcroft's rule — an interpretation of the federal Controlled Substances Act — also instructed the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to prosecute the doctors.
Oregon is the only state allowing physician-assisted suicide. The state's voters have twice approved the law allowing it — in 1994 and again in 1997.
Ashcroft's interpretation cited a section of the Controlled Substances Act that limits prescription of narcotics to those issued for “a legitimate medical purpose.” The attorney general said physician-assisted suicide does not comprise a legitimate purpose, and that the licenses of physicians doing so could be revoked.
The state of Oregon, a pharmacist, a doctor and several terminally ill patients sued Ashcroft over the rule and won decisions in lower courts. Although an injunction has prevented implementation of Ashcroft's rule, the plaintiffs argued that the rule nonetheless had caused a “chilling effect” among physicians, preventing many from facilitating the suicides for terminally ill patients.
In their ruling, the 9th Circuit panel's majority said that Ashcroft exceeded his authority under federal law in issuing the rule — and that the rule itself violated Congress' intent in the Controlled Substances Act.
Judge Richard Tallman, writing for the majority, was careful to point out the decision was merely a jurisdictional one. “To be perfectly clear, we take no position on the merits or morality of physician-assisted suicide,” Tallman wrote. “We express no opinion on whether the practice is inconsistent with the public interest or constitutes illegitimate medical care. This case is simply about who gets to decide.”
Tallman concluded: “The Attorney General's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority.”
But in his dissent to the decision, Judge Clifford Wallace said Ashcroft was within his authority to interpret federal statutes by issuing the rule — and that the Oregon act itself may be in tension with federal law. “Nothing in the Controlled Substances Act's text or legislative history authorizes the majority to deny deference to the Ashcroft directive,” he wrote.
Pro-life groups derided the decision. “Suicide among the elderly and those suffering from serious illness or disability is not a 'medical practice' but a tragic public health problem deserving a thoughtful, caring response,” said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, a lawyer and spokesperson for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' bioethics wing. “The 9th Circuit has just told these patients that their lives are expendable.”
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