Portland, OR --- Oregon Death with Dignity (ODWD) strongly supports the actions of Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers.  This afternoon, Myers is expected to file an injunction asking the federal courts to allow Oregon’s Death with Dignity law to remain in effect while the state seeks to challenge a federal ruling by Attorney General John Ashcroft.  Through his ruling, Ashcroft and the U.S. Department of Justice threaten physicians and pharmacists and strip patients of their rights.

“The people of Oregon are well represented in the case introduced by Attorney General Myers today.  The speed with which his office set forth such a thorough argument is a tribute to how important this issue is to Oregonians and to the principle of democracy,” said Scott Swenson, Executive Director of Oregon Death with Dignity.

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Oregon Death with Dignity will file its own case seeking an injunction against Attorney General Ashcroft’s intrusion into Oregon law. The ODWD case will be filed in a news conference at noon, on Thursday, November 8, on the steps of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, OR (1000 SW 3^rd Avenue).  The ODWD case will introduce the physician and pharmacist plaintiffs that will challenge the federal government’s inroads into the regulation of legitimate medical practice by the State of Oregon.  Lead attorney for the case, Eli Stutsman, will brief reporters.

Oregon Death with Dignity is the only organization to successfully pass a death with dignity law anywhere in the country.  Likewise, it is the only organization to ever win a court case supportive of death with dignity.  ODWD was the lead organization defending the Oregon law between 1994 and 1997 through the federal court all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Eli Stutsman is the attorney who drafted the Oregon law and defended it successfully in every legal challenge.

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