Credit Wyden, not Smith: Democrat defended the Death With Dignity Law

By None, The Register-Guard (Eugene), Jan. 21, 2006

Editorial

Five years after supporting a bill that would have blocked Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, Sen. Gordon Smith issued a terse statement Tuesday expressing support for a law that has been approved twice by the state's voters and upheld this week by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Regardless of my personal position on assisted suicide, Oregon's law has been tested at every branch of our government and the judgment of Oregon's voters has been affirmed," Smith stated. "I accept the Supreme Court's decision and Congress should do the same."

The Oregon Republican's support, however restrained and qualified, is welcome, especially at a time when fellow federal lawmakers are planning another effort to block assisted suicide. Given the Senate's tradition of deferring to personal prerogative, Smith's opposition to such legislation could prove a major impediment.

However, if Oregon's law survives what may well be a final full-bore onslaught, it will be the state's other senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, and not Smith who deserves primary credit.

Oregonians should remember that the state's Death With Dignity Law would be no more than a historical footnote if it hadn't been for Wyden's tenacious and spirited fight to defend it against earlier attacks in Congress.

Oregon voters gave their approval to doctor-assisted suicide in 1994, and affirmed their support at the polls in 1997. One year later, then-Assistant Senate Majority Leader Don Nickles, R-Okla., introduced a measure that would have barred doctors from using drugs covered by the federal Controlled Substances Act to deliberately cause a patient's death. Nickles' Pain Relief Promotion Act, which would have effectively annulled Oregon's law by imposing prison terms of up to 20 years and fines of up to $1 million, passed the House and appeared headed for easy passage in the Senate.

It was at this critical juncture that Wyden and Smith took different paths. While both politicians personally opposed assisted suicide, Wyden chose to defend the twice-stated will of Oregon voters, while Smith chose to support Nickles' punitive bill.

Wyden's defense appeared doomed from the outset. Conservatives lined up solidly behind Nickles, even though his bill ran counter to their traditional reverence for states' rights. Nickles also had support of some Democrats, including his bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Joe Lie- berman.

The fight was both nasty and protracted. When Wyden threatened to filibuster, Nickles retaliated by blocking Wyden's rural county payments bill, imperiling the flow of tens of millions of federal dollars to rural counties and schools in Oregon and throughout the West.

After a 3-month impasse, Smith brokered an agreement in which Nickles stopped stalling the vote on the county payments bill and Wyden backed off his filibuster threat. Despite long odds, Wyden ultimately prevailed, blocking Nickles' Pain Relief Promotion Act from coming up for a vote in the Senate, while also securing passage of the county payments bill.

On Wednesday, one day after the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision, Wyden served notice that he once again intends to fight any effort to block Oregon's assisted suicide law. In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Wyden vowed to "use every legislative and procedural tool at my disposal as a United States senator to block any attempt to overturn, invalidate or otherwise affect Oregon's law in any way."

If Oregon's Death With Dignity Law survives efforts to give it a lethal dose in Congress, Oregonians should remember which senator fought longest and hardest to defend it.

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