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Supreme Court Supports Oregon Law Allowing
Doctor-Assisted Suicide
Chief Justice Roberts in Lopsided Minority
Jan. 17, 2006 - In a surprisingly one-sided vote -
6 to 3 - the US Supreme Court today ruled against the Bush
administration's attempt to strike down Oregon's 1997 Death With Dignity
Act, which allows physicians to assist terminally ill patients who wish
to die. The new Chief Justice John Roberts, in his first major case,
sided with the minority.
Currently, Oregon is the only state allowing
assisted suicide but many expect this ruling to clear the way for other
states to follow.
Although the case was Gonzales (current U.S. attorney general) vs
Oregon, it was former attorney general, John Ashcroft, who created the
case.
Ashcroft used laws against drug dealers in the U.S.
Controlled Substances Act to charge doctors who
prescribed fatal medication under the Oregon law.
The "authority claimed by the attorney general is
both beyond his expertise and incongruous with the statutory purposes
and design," wrote
Justice
Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, in the majority decision.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the minority of
himself, Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas, said that federal
officials have the power to regulate the doling out of medicine.
"If the term `legitimate medical purpose' has any
meaning, it surely excludes the prescription of drugs to produce death,"
wrote Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking for the minority of Roberts and
Justice Clarence Thomas.
He added, however, that "it is easy to sympathize"
with a position that says "the subject of assisted suicide is none of
the federal government's business."
Scalia, like Kennedy, was nominated for the court
by President Reagan.
There had been much speculation about how Justice Roberts would vote.
Many thought he would vote against the law because of his Roman Catholic
background, but others pointed to his advocacy of state's rights as a
reason he might support Oregon's law.
More
than 200 people have reportedly killed themselves using drugs prescribed
under the Oregon.
It has been primarily cancer victims that have used the Oregon law to
end their lives. The law requires that patients have
less than six months to live. It must also be determined by two doctors
that they are mentally fit to make the decision. They also must file one
written and two oral statements of their decision.
The lethal medication is prescribed by a doctor by the patients are
required to administer it themselves.
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