Posted on 11/06/2001 10:24:26 AM PST by callisto
Matt Drudge's breaking headline...More to follow...
Any interest in defending that statement?
Ashcroft Targets Oregon Assisted-Suicide Law
November 6, 2001, 11:30 AM
By Katherine Pfleger, AP Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Attorney General John Ashcroft gave federal drug agents the go-ahead Tuesday to take action against doctors who help terminally ill patients die, a move aimed at undercutting Oregon's unique assisted-suicide law.
The decision, outlined in a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson, would allow the revocation of drug licenses of doctors who participate in an assisted suicide using a federally controlled substance.
Ashcroft's letter reverses a June 1998 order by his predecessor, Janet Reno, who barred agents from moving against doctors who used Oregon's law.
Ashcroft said assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" for prescribing, dispensing or administering federally controlled substances. However, he said pain management is a legitimate medical use of controlled substances.
Ashcroft based his decision on a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in May that said there is no exception in federal drug laws for the medical use of marijuana to ease pain from cancer, AIDS and other illnesses.
The court didn't change state laws allowing patients to use marijuana for medical reasons, but made the drug harder to obtain by denying patients the right to claim "medical necessity" as a reason to circumvent a 1970 law regulating controlled substances.
Under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, doctors may provide -- but not administer -- a lethal prescription to terminally ill adult state residents. It requires that two doctors agree the patient has less than six months to live, has voluntarily chosen to die and is able to make health care decisions.
At least 70 terminally ill people have ended their lives since the law took effect in 1997, according to the Oregon Health Division. All have done so with a federally controlled substance such as a barbiturate.
In a 1998 letter to Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., Reno said she found no evidence the Controlled Subtances Act law was intended to displace states as the primary regulators of the medical profession or override a state's authority determine of what constitutes a legitimate medical practice.
Since then, conservative, religious and anti-abortion groups have mounted a campaign to try to block the Oregon law. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., pushed a bill last session that would have done what Ashcroft ordered. The measure, stridently opposed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., never reached the floor for a vote.
Oregon voters twice approved physician-assisted suicide in referendums during the 1990s. The Supreme Court in June 1997 upheld bans on assisted suicide in New York and Washington state, but left it up to states to decide whether to allow the practice.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
I beg to differ. His words speak to the very bedrock of conservative thought. Get the government out of our lives. Let the free market reign. What could be more conservative? As far as personal responsibility goes, that point wasn't even addressed.
How does this qualify as conservative thought or personal responsibility? I never really thought it was conservative to empower the federal government to determine what is a legitimate medical purpose. The purpose of medicine is defined by the doctor patient relationship and big brother, whether he be liberal or conservative, has no business inserting itself into such a private realm.
IT IS NOT THE FEDS BUSINESS....THESE ARE LAWS PASSED BY CITIZENS OF THE STATES. FOR GOD'S SAKE, GO FIND SOME TERRORISTS!
I am torn between agreeing with you, and pointing out that "assisting" in this sense is actually MURDER.
You can do both. With a very few exceptions (e.g., crossing of state lines, killing of federal employees, etc.), murder is none of the feds' business.
Not even close. Abortion is murder, but what the doctors do in Oregon related to physician assisted suicide could only be labeled as murder by the ignorant or dishonest.
For example when abortion was introduced as being legal, liberals have taken on larger steps now towards killing babies after a certain period of time AFTER birth. This was talked about for handicapped children but now we are hearing about this possibility taking place as a 'right' for any parents for any child born.
What does this have to do with assisted suicide? It has to do with our culture of death. Liberals are promoting this culture of death and I say that people that agree with assisted suicide have bought into it.
I am libertarian minded but I see this whole concept as a deception. It's clothed in 'rights' issues but it does not have to do with rights. We need to foster the integrity of life no matter the age, handicap or whatever. When you stand up for assisted suicide you are standing with those who want to control the population and determine what kind of people are worth having around and who's not.
Sure you can say and comfort yourselves saying that these people are deciding for themselves, but their decisions come from a culture that has influenced them into thinking that because they are sick they have no value or because they are handicapped they are not wanted or becuase they are mentally ill they can not or should not go on. All of this comes from liberals that think THEY know what's best.
We have become a culture of death which has made suicide 'acceptable' and frankly I think that is a pathetic blot on who and what we have become.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.