X-Message-Number: 7677 Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 11:31:31 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Oregon Measure 16 update The following is excerpted from a front-page article in THE OREGONIAN on February 10: OREGON ASSISTED-SUICIDE MEASURE FACES ASSAULT ON U.S., LOCAL LEVELS by TOM BATES - of the Oregonian Staff Summary: Foes ready an all-out attack on Measure 16 with lawmakers, and supporters are planning to strike back Oregon's embattled Measure 16, the world's first law allowing doctor- assisted suicide, could be history before anyone gets to order a bottle of life-ending barbiturates. Well-organized legislative assaults at federal and local levels threaten to hamstring or gut the law, even if it survives a court challenge. It will be five months before the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether Americans have the right to kill themselves with a physician's assistance. But activists opposed to doctors writing lethal prescriptions aren't standing idly by. In Washington, D.C, the U.S. Senate will get a first look this week at a bill to prevent using federal money to help people die. In Oregon, the Legislature is listening to a small army of Measure 16 opponents, who demand nothing less than repeal of the 1994 initiative. In Washington, D.C., Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., and Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo. plan on Wednesday to introduce "The Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997." The bill would bar any use of federal money or facilities for assisted suicide and would relieve health care providers of any obligation to tell patients they have a right to assisted suicide. The legislative attacks reflect growing recognition that the courts will deem assisted suicide a state's rights issue. As the only state with an assisted - suicide law on the books, that puts Oregon in the hot seat. The U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating cases from New York and Washington, states that seek to make assisted suicide illegal. If justices rule that a constitutional right to die exists or that it is strictly a state's rights issue, Oregon's Measure 16 becomes law. Supporters of assisted suicide consider state legislative repeal of Measure 16 the most serious threat to their cause. Robert J. Castagna, executive director of the Oregon Catholic Conference, said repeal is his top priority of the session. The conference lobbies on behalf of 300,000 Oregon Catholics, the largest congregation in the state. Castagna has submitted a draft of a bill called "The Oregon Compassionate Care Act of 1997." Reflecting input from a variety of interest groups, including Oregon Right to Life, it would erase Measure 16's provisions and create an office and a hot line providing information and referral services to the terminally ill and their families. House Judiciary Chairman John Minnis, R-Wood Village, said that bill and a variety of others to repeal Measure 16 absolutely would get a hearing. "I personally am not in favor of physician-assisted suicide," Minnis said. Sidebar text -- MEASURE 16'S TWISTS AND TURNS For Ballot Measure 16, the path to implementation has many twists and turns. But experts on both sides of the issue think the 1994 Oregon initiative could take effect by late this year or early 1998. The scenario, as horrifying to foes as it is to opponents goes like this: * The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, now reviewing a decision by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan of Eugene that Measure 16 is unconstitutional, will wait to see what the U.S. Supreme Court says about the right-to-die cases it heard in January from Washington state and New York. * In June or July, the Supreme Court will rule that there is no constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide but that states may do what they like about it. * The 9th Circuit, which called the Oregon law "carefully crafted" will order Judge Hogan to lift the ban he imposed in December 1994 blocking Measure 16's implementation. * Opponents will request that the ban stay in place while they petition the Supreme Court to review it. * The ban will be granted, but the Supreme Court will decide not to hear an appeal, having already offered its opinion that the issue of physician-assisted suicide is best left to the states. * When the review is denied, as early as the first week of October, Orgeon's Death-wtih-Dignity Act will take effect. The first possible suicide is possible in about 30 days. [Comment: this seems like a likely scenario--dbe] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7677