X-Message-Number: 8983
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 14:29:56 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Oregon update

from ASSOCIATED PRESS
(Jan 9/98 4:09 AM EST)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
             DOCTORS' GROUP TAKES PHARMACY BOARD RULE TO COURT

   PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Oregon Medical Association has asked the
   state appeals court to rule invalid a pharmacy board requirement that
   doctors who write life-ending prescriptions specify the prescription's
   purpose in writing.

   Doctors argue that the Oregon Board of Pharmacy rule would breach
   doctor-patient confidentiality and expose doctors to possibly losing
   their medical licenses.

   On Tuesday, the OMA asked the Oregon Court of Appeals to erase the
   rule.

   Voters approved Oregon's assisted suicide law in 1994, but it was held
   up by legal challenges until recently. Voters reaffirmed the law last
   Nov. 4, and two days later, the pharmacy board approved the emergency
   rule.

   Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law permits physicians to prescribe
   lethal medication for adult, mentally competent patients who have been
   diagnosed with a terminal illness and have less than six months to
   live.

   The law permits doctors and other health care workers to decline to
   assist in a suicide if it violates their personal ethics.

   Pharmacists say they, too, should have the opportunity to refuse to
   participate in assisted suicides by filling prescriptions. The law
   doesn't specify how pharmacists would know if they were filling a
   lethal prescription.

   Doctors fear that complying with the pharmacy rule would identify
   physicians participating in assisted suicides to the U.S. Drug
   Enforcement Administration.

   The DEA's administrator has told Congress that the agency has the
   authority to revoke the certification of any doctor who prescribes a
   controlled substance for a nonlegitimate medical purpose, which the
   administrator says would include physician-assisted suicide.

   The U.S. Justice Department, which oversees the DEA, is conducting its
   own review.

   The pharmacy board's rule would be in effect until mid-May unless the
   Court of Appeals agrees with the OMA.

   If the court lets the rule stand, the pharmacy board would have to
   hold public hearings in order to make the rule permanent.

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8983