Ninth Circuit Panel Rebuffs Ashcroft.(John Ashcroft; euthanasia)

A divided 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled May 26 that the federal government must facilitate assisted suicide in Oregon by authorizing the use of federally controlled narcotics and other dangerous drugs to kill patients. The 2-1 decision, written by Judge Richard Tallman, struck down a ruling that such misuse of federally controlled drugs violated federal law. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is likely.

Tallman, joined by Judge Donald Lay, leveled particularly harsh criticism at Attorney General John Ashcroft. At the same time, J. Clifford Wallace, in his thoughtful dissent, laid out a persuasive case upholding Ashcroft's application of the federal Controlled Substances Act to the Oregon "Death with Dignity" law.

Burke Balch, J.D., director of the National Right to Life Committee's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, criticized the decision, saying, "The American people do not want their federal government to facilitate euthanasia." The 9th Circuit majority's "odd decision," he added, "is that state law controls federal law."

The use of narcotics and other dangerous drugs is generally prohibited by federal law. The exception is when a doctor prescribes them for a "legitimate medical purpose."

On November 5, 1997, then-Drug Enforcement Administrator Thomas Constantine announced that since assisting suicide is not "a legitimate medical purpose [,] ... prescribing a controlled substance with the intent of assisting a suicide" violates federal law.

However, seven months later, Clinton Administration Attorney General Janet Reno partially overruled Constantine's decision. She agreed that "adverse action" might be warranted "where a physician assists in a suicide in a state that has not authorized the practice under any conditions, or where a physician fails to comply with state procedures in doing so."

However, she said federally controlled drugs could be prescribed to kill patients when it is legal under state law. Oregon is the only state whose law specifically authorizes lethal prescriptions.