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Oregonians approved the landmark Death With Dignity Act in 1994. The act withstood court challenges in 1997. It was reaffirmed by 60 percent of Oregon voters last November. Two months ago, the U.S. Justice Department said the Drug Enforcement Administration, which was being goosed into action by a couple of senators, had no authority to punish doctors who prescribe life-ending drugs to Oregonians. At every step of the way, Oregonians have signaled that assisted suicide is a choice we want to have--and federal and state law have affirmed that choice. Yet Congress is still mucking about where it has no business. Last week, 138 members of Congress urged Attorney General Janet Reno to overrule the legal judgments of her own staff. They encouraged her to let loose the pit bulls in the Drug Enforcement Administration on those physicians in Oregon who, in full compliance with state law, might assist the suicide of a terminally ill patient with less than six months to live. What a waste of the DEA's time. This election-year posturing is insidious. Consider that last year, the Oregon Medical Association surveyed its members and found that half of Oregon doctors do not want to participate in assisted suicide. Some of those doctors oppose assisted suicide on moral grounds, and others may be concerned that the DEA will indeed be allowed to remove their ability to prescribe drugs. But many others simply don't want to subject themselves to the public haranguing, and perhaps danger, that participation in such a legal practice might bring about. Such was the concern of the doctor who assisted in Oregon's first reported assisted suicide--the death last month of an 80-year-old woman. The physician told his story to reporters only on the condition that he remain anonymous. His concern is understandable. It's not difficult to imagine rabid opponents of assisted suicide copying the extreme measures that some anti-abortion activists have taken toward doctors who agree to perform this legal procedure: doorstep protests and, in some cases, murder. Congress' reckless attempt to tamper with the will of this state's voters can only exacerbate the tension that already exists over this controversial practice. It's worth noting that the majority of the 138 Congressmen (105, to be exact) are Republicans, members of the Grand Old Party that claims to stand for limiting the role of the federal government and respecting states' rights. How does that philosophy square with this current effort to meddle in the affairs of Oregon residents? It doesn't. |
