X-Message-Number: 11975 Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 09:54:58 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Federal bill would overturn Oregon law Nickles, lawmakers renew fight against assisted suicide By JOHN HUGHES The Associated Press 06/17/99 11:09 AM Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Don Nickles today led a renewed charge against Oregon's first-in-the-nation assisted suicide law, offering a new proposal that would make it illegal for physicians to use controlled substances to help patients die. The proposal by Nickles, R-Okla., and House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., also makes it clear that controlled substances are "a legitimate medical purpose" for treating pain. The bill also calls for more training and education to improve end-of-life care. "We want to make sure these substances are used for legitimate purposes, that is to alleviate pain, not to assist in a suicide," Nickles said at a news conference, which was not attended by Hyde. He was joined by Rep. Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Dr. Jack Kevorkian's home state of Michigan, who is cosponsor of the House proposal. Stupak said the House bill has 58 cosponsors so far. The bill will be introduced later today in the House and on a later date in the Senate. The proposal drew immediate criticism from Josh Kardon, Sen. Ron Wyden's chief of staff. The bill would "train and deputize a doctors' police," and Wyden, D-Ore., will filibuster any attempt to overturn Oregon's law, Kardon said. "The question you have to ask is would Sen. Nickles be introducing this bill if Oregon hadn't passed an assisted suicide law," he added. Wyden and other backers of Oregon's law derailed Hyde and Nickels' attempt last year to overturn the landmark state law, even though Hyde-Nickles legislation cleared the House and Senate Judiciary committees. But Kardon acknowledged that Hyde and Nickels have a stronger hand this year because of support they picked up from some medical groups. The National Hospice Organization, which represents 3,000 hospices specializing in end-of-life care, supports the Hyde and Nickles bill this year after opposing it last year. The NHO supports the bill because it no longer calls for a board or committee that would report on physicians' activities and potentially wrongly accuse doctors of assisted suicide when patients die after receiving pain medication, said David Simpson, board chairman of the organization, who spoke at the press conference. Other groups that opposed the bill last year, but support it this year, include the American Academy of Pain Management and the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Nickles said. He rejected the notion that his bill is unfair to Oregonians, who have twice voted to enact an assisted suicide law. He said if a state enacted a law to legalize heroin, the federal law would still supersede it and make sure the substance is illegal in all states. "You need consistency, you need uniformity," Nickles said. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11975