X-Message-Number: 6493
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 17:13:00 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Oregon law update

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals met Tuesday in
Portland to hear arguments on the constitutionality of Oregon Measure 16.
But before lawyers could even get started, Judge Melvin Brunetti made clear
that the judges were interested in whether the lawsuit that resulted in the
injunction against the law should have even gone forward.  It was U.S.
District Judge Michael Hogan of Eugene who let the 1994 lawsuit proceed,
finding that plaintiffs with terminal illnesses had legal standing to
challenge the law in court.  The lawsuit was filed by two people who said
they had terminal illnesses, along with a doctor and the owners of two
nursing homes.  The state is appealing Hogan's August 1995 ruling in which
he said the law was unconstitutional because it failed to protect terminally
ill people who are mentally incompetent.  Oregon's law would permit a doctor
to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to a mentally competent, terminally ill
patient with less than six months to live.  The patient must request the
prescription. Voters adopted the law as a ballot initiative, Measure 16, in
1994.  The 9th Circuit panel did not indicate when it will rule.

 <David Brandt-Erichsen>


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