X-Message-Number: 8291
Date: Sat, 07 Jun 1997 13:03:57 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Right to die updates

Three decisions concerning the right to die will be made this week or soon
thereafter:

The Oregon State Senate will meet at 10 a.m. on Monday, June 9, to decide
whether or not to send the Oregon Death With Dignity Act (Ballot Measure
16) back to the voters in November for a second opinion.  Last month the
Oregon House of Representatives voted 32-26 to send the same Ballot Measure
back to the voters.  The Senate vote on Monday may be much closer, and
victory for either side could be a matter of last minute decisions by a few
senators.

The US Supreme Court is scheduled to give its decision regarding the 9th
and 2nd Circuit Court decisions which had both ruled -- on differing
grounds -- that states cannot have laws which prohibit physician-assisted
suicide for a competent, terminally ill adult.  The buzz from insiders in
Washington DC is that the decision will come down this Monday, but this is
merely a rumor.  Decisions from the Court are normally issued on Mondays,
and there are only three Mondays left in the Supreme Court current term so
the decision is virtually certain very soon.

The Florida Supreme Court is expected to rule this coming Thursday, June
12, on the Hall case, where a lower court at first granted a man dying of
AIDS the right to have his doctor help him to die, and then an appeals
court took that right away again.  The Florida court may decide to take
more time about its deliberations, however.

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