News Release

Contact: Scott Swenson (202) 969.1669 or Jeana Frazzini (503) 228.4415

On Wednesday, August 11, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Attorney General John Ashcroft’s petition for a rehearing of the case Oregon v. Ashcroft.

"This is a swift and certain denial of Ashcroft's petitions for rehearing--Judge Wallace stands alone in his dissent," said Eli D. Stutsman, Portland attorney and President of the Death with Dignity National Center, which represents physicians and pharmacists in this litigation.

Judge Wallace was the lone dissent in the case decided in May and the only judge on the entire Ninth Circuit voting to re-hear the case. Ashcroft now has until September 27, 2004, to petition the United States Supreme Court and appeal the ruling of the Ninth Circuit. 

ADVISORY – FUTURES DESK – CALENDAR OF EVENTS

MAJOR CONFERENCE IN D.C. ELEVATES ISSUE AS ASHCROFT MULLS APPEAL TO U.S. SUPREME COURT

On September 9th, the Death with Dignity National Center will host a major conference in Washington, D.C.  Ten Years of Dignity will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the passage of Oregon’s Death with Dignity law.  The conference coincides with the release of a new book edited by board members Dr. Timothy Quill and Margaret Battin, Ph.D., entitled Physician Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

The conference is on the campus of George Washington University in the Cafritz Conference Center running from 9:45 AM to 4:30 PM.  Media are welcome to attend.  The first session of the day will be of particular interest to journalists as it features keynotes by the editors of the book. Following the keynotes will be a panel discussion offering data from Oregon’s experience with the Death with Dignity law.  The panel features Ann Jackson of the Oregon Hospice Association, Barbara Coombs Lee of the Compassion in Dying Federation and Alan Meisel of the Center of Bioethics at the University of Pittsburgh . Keynote speakers and panelists will take questions from the media and conferees.

Speakers are as follows:

• TIM QUILL, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Rochester, author, and co-editor of Physician-Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice;

• MARGARET BATTIN, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah, author, co-editor of Physician-Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice;

• BISHOP JOHN SHELBY SPONG, DD, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, scholar, author and most published member of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States;

• SYLVIA LAW, JD, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Medicine and Psychiatry at the New York University School of Law, co-director of the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program;

• ELI D. STUTSMAN, JD, co-author, Oregon Death with Dignity Law, strategist, founding president, Death with Dignity National Center, attorney representing a physician and pharmacist in Oregon v. Ashcroft.

CERTIFICATION: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essentials Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Death with Dignity National Center. The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry designates this educational activity for a maximum of 5.15 category 1 credits toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those credits that he/she actually spent in the activity.

For conference information contact Loren Drummond at (202) 969.1669 or online at www.deathwithdignity.org

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