X-Message-Number: 12423
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 09:21:18 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Congress deals blow to assisted suicide
The following front-page article appears in today's OREGONIAN
(Weds Sept 15, 1999)
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CONGRESS DEALS BLOW TO ASSISTED SUICIDE
A bill that would dismantle Oregon's law is
passed by a key committee but must clear
several other hurdles before taking effect
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By Mark O'Keefe of The Oregonian staff
WASHINGTON -- A bill that would undercut
Oregon's landmark physician-assisted
suicide law cleared its first important
hurdle Tuesday when the House Judiciary
Committee passed the Pain Relief Promotion
Act of 1999.
The bill must still pass through several
other committees and the full House and
Senate and be signed by President Clinton
to become law.
Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the Judiciary
Committee's chairman and a driving force
behind the bill, said the chances of that
happening "are pretty good, about 60-40."
The committee action Tuesday was along
party lines, with the Republican majority
defeating amendments to exclude Oregon from
the bill and to weaken the legislation's
impact on physicians. The final vote was
16-8, with no amendments attached.
Thus far, much of the debate has been about
states' rights and whether the federal
government should step in on a law that was
approved by Oregon voters in 1994 and
reaffirmed in 1997.
After Tuesday's committee vote, Rep. Bob
Barr, R-Ga., said that Congress had already
established jurisdiction for overseeing
drug use and that "Oregon still happens to
be part of the Union."
The bill encourages aggressive pain
treatment for the terminally ill. But it
cripples the use of Oregon's law by
outlawing the prescribing of federally
controlled drugs, such as barbiturates,
specifically to assist in someone's death.
All 15 of the documented patients who died
under the law in 1998 used controlled
substances prescribed by physicians.
Under the bill, doctors would risk losing
their federal prescribing privileges and,
under the long-established Controlled
Substances Act, might also be subject to
prison terms.
Democrats argued that the penalties were so
severe that they would hamper end-of-life
care by physicians who might be afraid to
prescribe large doses of pain relievers,
such as morphine, because that might be
interpreted as assisting in a suicide.
That's the same argument used last year
when a similar bill undercutting Oregon's
law passed the House Judiciary Committee
but died quietly without a vote by the full
House or Senate.
Changes this year give the congressional
legislation a better chance of succeeding.
The bill amends the Controlled Substances
Act to explicitly state that using
controlled substances to alleviate pain and
discomfort is permitted, even if such
medications increase the risk of death.
That, along with a commitment of $5 million
in grants for medical schools and hospices
to give training in end-of-life care,
persuaded several leading medical
organizations to support this year's bill.
"This recognizes that aggressive use of
pain medication may hasten death," said Dr.
Thomas Reardon, president of the American
Medical Association, which is supporting
this year's version after opposing last
year's. "That's OK, because the issue must
be the intent. The intent is to treat, not
to kill."
Greg Hamilton of the Oregon-based
Physicians for Compassionate Care agrees,
saying the bill "would channel efforts into
treating these people instead of ending
their lives."
The Oregon Medical Association and Oregon
Hospice Association, however, oppose the
bill, arguing that it will still have a
chilling effect on physicians.
So does the entire Oregon congressional
delegation, with the exception of Sen.
Gordon Smith, a Republican, who says he's
torn between defending the sanctity of life
and defending Oregon's right to make its
own laws without federal interference.
No members of the Oregon delegation are on
the House Judiciary Committee. But several
have said they will try to slow progress of
the bill in the House before it's seriously
discussed in the Senate, where Sen. Ron
Wyden, D-Ore., says he will filibuster if
necessary.
Democrats from other parts of the country
unsuccessfully tried to make the states'
rights argument in the House Judiciary
Committee on Tuesday.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, decried a
"Big Brother attitude" behind a bill that
"will effectively snuff out the voices of
people in Oregon."
She said Congress should allow Oregon to
serve the rest of the country as a
laboratory of experimentation, putting
assisted suicide into the medical
mainstream as no other state has done.
But after the vote, Hyde defended the idea
of Congress discouraging such
experimentation. "We have drug laws that
are federal that cover every state in the
Union," Hyde said. "I don't think this is
any radical intervention. I don't think a
state should be able to pre-empt federal
law, especially a law that has established
national standards on controlled
substances."
Hyde predicted that a discussion of states'
rights "will be the debate" as the bill
makes it way through Congress.
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