Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Assisted Suicide Law

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
Date: January 17, 2006 1:50:30 PM EST
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Subject: Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Assisted Suicide Law


Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Assisted Suicide Law

By DAVID STOUT
The New York Times
January 17, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - The Supreme Court upheld Oregon's
assisted-suicide law today, declaring that the Bush administration
had exceeded its authority in trying to undo the statute by punishing
doctors who help people end their lives.

In a 6-to-3 decision, which would apply to other states if their
people chose to follow Oregon's lead, the court held that former
Attorney General John Ashcroft went well beyond his authority and
expertise when he ruled in 2001 that doctors would lose their federal
prescription privileges if they prescribed lethal doses of
medications for patients.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, acknowledged
that the long-running battle over the Oregon law is part of a
"political and moral debate." But the issue for the court, he noted,
was a more technical, down-to-earth one: Did the attorney general go
beyond his powers under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970?

Clearly, he did, Justice Kennedy wrote, in an opinion joined by
Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, David H. Souter,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. The Controlled Substances
Act "gives the attorney general limited powers, to be exercised in
specific ways," the court ruled.

Those limited powers, however, do not include the ability to declare
illegitimate "a medical standard for care and treatment of patients
that is specifically authorized under state law."

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/ 
politicsspecial1/18scotuscnd.html

Opinion
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl? 
court=US&vol=000&invol=04-623

Excerpts
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/oregon-excerpts.html

Oregon's Law
http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/documents/archive_d.html#dwda



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