X-Message-Number: 8680 Date: Wed Oct 15 06:51:10 1997 PST Subject: Fwd: U.S. High Court will not review Oregon suicide law From: (Edgar W Swank) 10:52 AM ET 10/14/97 U.S. High Court will not review Oregon suicide law By James Vicini WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court Tuesday let stand a ruling that dismissed for technical reasons a challenge to a controversial Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicide. Oregon in 1994 became the first state to adopt a law making doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill legal, but it has never gone into effect due to the legal challenge brought on behalf of patients, physicians and health-care providers. A federal judge in Oregon initially struck down the law as unconstitutional. But a U.S. appeals court in February ruled the plaintiffs, represented by attorneys from the National Right to Life Committee, were in no danger of imminent injury from the law and thus lacked legal standing to bring the case. The decision did not address the merits of the challenge that the law unconstitutionally discriminates against the terminally ill, but covered only the technical issue of legal standing. The Oregon legislature in June voted to send the law back to the voters on Nov. 4 for possible repeal. The physician-assisted suicide law had been narrowly approved by just 51 percent of the voters. The Oregon law allows terminally ill people to request and then receive a lethal dose of prescription drugs if a doctor determines they have less than six months to live. The request must be made in writing and signed by two witnesses, and a second request must be made orally by the patient right before the prescription is given. The Supreme Court in June issued major rulings upholding laws in New York and Washington state that banned doctor-assisted suicide. James Bopp, an attorney for the plaintiffs, urged the high court in the appeal to hear the case, saying the issues ``are of vital national importance as the debate over assisted suicide continues.'' He added: ``State-sanctioned death of innocent persons should not begin without the most careful review by this court.'' The Oregon law has remained on hold until the Supreme Court acts on the appeal. ``The question of who has standing to challenge a regime of assisted suicide ... is one of immense public importance,'' Bopp said, adding that the health care providers and Janice Elsner, who is dying from progressive muscular dystrophy and is a plaintiff in the case, deserve their day in court. Bopp also urged the high court to defer consideration of the appeal until after the Oregon voters decide in November whether to keep the law or to repeal it. Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers urged that the appeal be denied, saying the case does not warrant review, that it only concerned the issue of standing and that it involved a fact-specific application of settled legal principles. ``Review would unnecessarily delay final judgment in the case,'' he said. The high court sided with the state, turning down the appeal without comment or dissent. Edgar W. Swank <> President - American Cryonics Society http://www.jps.net/cryonics/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8680