The Bush Administration moved decisively to end federal support for euthanasia November 6 when Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that federally controlled drugs can no longer be used to assist suicide, a practice that had been permitted by the Clinton-Gore Administration in the state of Oregon.

The Bush Administration moved decisively to end federal support for euthanasia November 6 when Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that federally controlled drugs can no longer be used to assist suicide, a practice that had been permitted by the Clinton-Gore Administration in the state of Oregon.

The next day Oregon, joined by some doctors who have offered lethal prescriptions and other euthanasia proponents, filed suit in federal court in an effort to require that federally controlled drugs remain available to kill terminally ill patients.

However, public support for the position taken by the Bush Administration is strong. By 67% to 29%, Americans say federal law should not allow the use of federally controlled narcotics and other dangerous drugs for the purpose of assisted suicide and euthanasia. (July 6-9, 2001, Wirthlin Worldwide national poll; 3.1% margin of error.)

The Bush Administration decision was carefully crafted to ensure that it will foster, and not deter, the willingness of doctors to prescribe such drugs when needed to control pain (see sidebar).

In a memorandum to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Asa Hutchinson, Ashcroft wrote, "Pain management, rather than assisted suicide, has long been recognized as a legitimate medical purpose justifying physicians' dispensing of controlled substances." The attorney general added, "There are important medical, ethical and legal distinctions between intentionally causing a patient's death and providing sufficient dosages of pain medication necessary to eliminate or alleviate pain."

Ashcroft's opinion reverses a 1998 administrative decision by Clinton-Gore Attorney General Janet Reno and effectively reinstates the original determination by the DEA. On November 5, 1997, then-DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine had announced that since assisting suicide is not "a legitimate medical purpose ... prescribing a controlled substance with the intent of assisting a suicide" violates the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Oregon is the only state in the nation whose law explicitly authorizes doctor-assisted suicide. Initially enacted by a referendum in 1994, the law went into effect in November 1997 after a series of court battles.