X-Message-Number: 9925 Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 07:56:00 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Federal battle on physician aid-in-dying (June 20/98) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAWMAKERS ARE GETTING READY FOR A BATTLE OVER ASSISTED SUICIDE by JOHN HUGHES WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers are getting ready for a battle over Oregon's assisted suicide law. The question is: When will that big fight ever come? House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Don Nickles, R-Okla., have introduced a bill that denies physicians a federal license to prescribe drugs for assisted suicide . But no House or Senate hearings have been scheduled on the measures, and both men say they don't know when hearings will be held. And as fall elections approach, lawmakers are still grappling over issues such as the federal budget and campaign finance reform. They may have little time for a bare-knuckles brawl over an issue that would polarize them largely along the lines of the abortion debate. "We have a very full plate in the social issues category," Hyde said. "The assisted - suicide bill is a serious bill. We'll get to it in time, but I don't know when that will be." Hyde said his committee is already busy with bills that would prohibit what he calls "partial-birth abortion" and make it harder for pregnant teen-agers to travel out of state for abortions. Meanwhile, both sides want to be ready when the debate hits. The National Right to Life Committee has made the Hyde-Nickles bill a priority and has dedicated three staff members to promoting it. Lori Hougens, lobbyist with the group, said Right to Life has contacted 150 members of Congress on assisted suicide since late last year. On a day during this past week, she planned visits to 11 offices of members she viewed as undecided. Oregon Death With Dignity, a group opposing the bill, has hired a public relations firm and sought the help of the state's congressional delegation. "My sense is that this was something that was put together without a lot of forethought into its consequences," Barbara Coombs Lee, executive director of the Compassion in Dying Federation, said of the bill. "The challenge is to make sure people understand how vast these consequences are." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., promises that any passage of the bill will certainly be delayed. He said he will speak for "a long, long time" against the bill on the Senate floor, raising questions and possibly offering amendments that would change it. But Wyden acknowledged: "I know that I am in a very, very uphill fight." Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said he has been trying to educate colleagues on the issue. He said the Republican authors are inconsistent in promoting states rights while simultaneously trying to overturn two Oregon referendums that allow assisted suicide. "It's an unprecedented intrusion into the practice of medicine by the states," DeFazio said. But Nickles rejects that argument, saying a federal prohibition against using drugs to assist in a suicide existed long before the Oregon votes. "Just because the state has a referendum, that doesn't change federal law," he said. Nickles said he has enlisted 18 co-sponsors for the bill. He predicts it will pass as easily as a bill last year that ensured no federal program or facility will be used in assisted suicide . "I don't think it's that controversial," Nickles said of his bill. "I think it will pass overwhelmingly." Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., supports the idea behind the Hyde- Nickles bill but hasn't taken a position on it because he hasn't had a chance to examine it, said his spokeswoman, Mary Healy. As to why he doesn't offer his own bill to ban assisted suicide , Healy said Smith is sensitive to the feelings of a majority of Oregonians. "While he's going to vote his conscience on this issue, I don't think he feels he needs to propose his own legislation," she said. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9925