Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Assisted Suicide Law
Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law
Brocktown News, Nevada
17 January, 2006
By GINA HOLLAND
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court, with Chief Justice John Roberts dissenting, upheld Oregon‘s one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.
That means the administration improperly tried to use a federal drug law to prosecute Oregon doctors who prescribe overdoses. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft vowed to do that in 2001, saying that doctor-assisted suicide is not a “legitimate medical purpose.”
Justice Anthony Kennedy , writing for the majority, said the federal government does, indeed, have the authority to go after drug dealers and pass rules for health and safety.
Tuesday‘s decision is a reprimand of sorts for Ashcroft. Kennedy said the “authority claimed by the attorney general is both beyond his expertise and incongruous with the statutory purposes and design.”
“The authority desired by the government is inconsistent with the design of the statute in other fundamental respects. The attorney general does not have the sole delegated authority under the (law),” Kennedy wrote for himself, retiring Justice Sandra Day O‘Connor Sandra Day O‘Connor and Justices John Paul Stevens , David Souter , and Ruth Bader Ginsburg , and Stephen Breyer .
Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented.
“If the term
legitimate medical purpose‘ has any meaning, it surely excludes the prescription of drugs to produce death,” he wrote.
Ashcroft had brought the case to the Supreme Court on the day his resignation was announced by the White House in 2004. The Justice Department has continued the case, under the leadership of his successor, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
More reports:
Oregon Assisted-Suicide Law Backed by U.S. High Court (Update1) Jan. 17 (Bloomberg)
Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law ABC News January 17, 2006
Court rules US govt can’t stop Oregon suicide law Tue Jan 17, 2006 Reuters