SHOWDOWN ON EUTHANASIA LOOMS IN CONGRESS
By NRLC Dept' of Medical Ethics Staff

A critical chapter in history will be written this fall as both houses of Congress are likely to take up legislation that would put a severe crimp in efforts to legalize euthanasia. Both the House and the Senate are expected to vote in September or October on the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 1998, which would prevent the use of federally controlled substances to assist suicide.

While Oregon has legalized the practice and Michigan is slated for a referendum vote on whether to do so this November, most physician-assisted suicides rely on the use of barbiturates and other dangerous drugs, called "controlled substances" whose use federal law forbids except pursuant to a prescription by a physician who holds a special "registration" with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The bill, introduced earlier this year by Senator Don Nickles and Representatives Henry Hyde and James Oberstar, would reinstate a 1997 ruling by DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine that declared the use of federally controlled substances to kill patients invalid on the grounds that assisting suicide is not a " legitimate medical purpose." Attorney General Janet Reno overturned the ruling on June 5, 1998, and the Clinton Administration has since stated its opposition to the bill. The bill also contains important provisions that would foster the provision of adequate pain relief.

Before Congress adjourned for its August recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill July 31, and the House Judiciary Committee voted out an amended version of it August 4. Because the House version was also referred to the Commerce Committee, it will also have an opportunity to vote on the bill before September 18, after which it will available for a floor vote. In the Senate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch indicated his intention to bring the bill to a vote in that committee soon after the Senate returns August 31. (The House is not due back until September 8; both the Senate and the House have targeted October 9 for adjournment.)

Although the legislation contains provisions that would reduce the danger under current law that DEA investigations might deter appropriate pain control, the American Medical Association and other medical organizations are opposing the bill, nominally on the grounds that the perception of DEA review could make doctors more reluctant to prescribe adequate dosages of controlled substances for pain. (See p. 12 for an analysis and rebuttal of this argument, which is wrong and misrepresents the bill.)

"To counter the lobbying efforts of misguided medical groups, it is critical that Members of Congress hear from their constituents how absolutely critical passage of this bill is to avert the coming of euthanasia to America," said Burke J. Balch, director of NRLC's Department of Medical Ethics.