RSSOregon case raises states� rights issues
By The Editors, Nashville City Paper, Feb. 18, 2005
The United States Supreme Court will take up a sticky issue today when it considers Oregon's assisted suicide law.
On one side are the people of Oregon, who twice voted for the law in 1994 and also in 1997. The Death with Dignity Act allows Oregon doctors to prescribe controlled substances to mentally competent patients who have six months or less to live. The substance is administered by the patients themselves.
On the other side is the federal government, represented by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It opposes assisted suicide.
The Bush administration is using a controversial path to try to overturn Oregon's law. In a directive filed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft, the administration maintains that the law violates the Controlled Substances Act because assisting terminally ill patients in committing suicide serves no "legitimate medical purpose." The administration also argues that taking drugs to commit suicide is drug abuse. The directive said that doctors who prescribed controlled substances for assisted suicide could lose their federal prescription licenses.
The rub is that the Controlled Substances Act was never meant to be applied to assisted suicide. The law was enacted to control the illegal use of legally controlled substances in the black market.
The topic here may be assisted suicide, but the real issue is states' rights versus the rights of the federal government. Traditionally conservative and liberal people are finding themselves in somewhat unfamiliar territory.
Conservatives have preached states' rights on a number of issues. Liberals have viewed the federal government as a sort of benevolent landlord.
The high court has purposely left the door open in the assisted suicide debate. When it last considered the issue in 1997, it upheld a state ban on assisted suicide while maintaining that the issue should remain under state control.
"Throughout the nation, Americans are engaged in an earnest and profound debate about the morality, legality and practicality of physician-assisted suicide," the court said. "Our holding permits this debate to continue as it should in a democratic society."
States' rights should prevail in this case. The voters spoke and should be heard.
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