Bill To Avert Euthanasia,
Promote Pain Relief Before Congress
On June 17, 1999, Senator Don Nickles (R-Ok.) and Representatives Henry Hyde (R-Il.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mi.) will introduce the Pain Relief Promotion Act of 1999.
Since their breakthrough legalization of assisting suicide in Oregon, pro-death forces have been moving on both the legislative and judicial fronts to expand on a state-by-state basis. A bill similar to Oregon's law has been reported to the floor of the California Assembly, where the legislative leadership has made its enactment a high priority. Meanwhile, a case is advancing through the Alaska state courts seeking to have physician- assisted suicide declared a state constitutional right.
"While we must fight the drive to legalize the killing of those deemed to have a 'poor quality of life' wherever the battle presents itself," said Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of NRLC's Department of Medical Ethics, "ultimately only protective laws on the national level can be fully effective in safeguarding the lives of the vulnerable."
While fostering appropriate pain relief and palliative care as a positive alternative to assisting suicide and euthanasia, the bill would ensure that narcotics and other dangerous drugs regulated as "federally controlled substances" may not be used to kill patients, even in a state such as Oregon where that is permitted by state law. All of the 15 officially reported deaths due to physician-assisted suicide in the first year Oregon's euthanasia law was in effect were caused by prescriptions for federally controlled substances.
In a nationwide poll conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide June 4-8, 64% of Americans believed that federal law should not allow use of "federally controlled drugs for the purpose of assisted suicide and euthanasia." Only 31% said such use should be allowed, while 5% didn't know or refused to answer (3.1% margin of error at 95% confidence level).
"With this bill, we have a tremendous opportunity to help stop euthanasia before it becomes entrenched in American law and practice," said NRLC Executive Director David N. O'Steen, Ph.D. "We stand now with regard to euthanasia roughly where we stood in the early 1970s with regard to abortion. It is far more difficult to reverse a rooted evil than it is to stop it before it gets culturally accepted and widely practiced."
O'Steen noted, "With the fate of the vulnerable elderly and people with disabilities hanging in the balance, what we door fail to dothis year may well determine the fate of countless of our grandparentsand grandchildren."
A similar effort by Sen. Nickles and Rep. Hyde last year met with opposition from the National Hospice Organization (NHO) and other medical groups. They said they were concerned that the bill might unintentionally deter physicians from prescribing controlled substances in the doses needed to achieve good pain control. However, months of negotiations have produced a revised bill that has been endorsed by the NHO.
The bill is expected to be referred to the House Commerce and Judiciary Committees and to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prompt committee action over the summer will be necessary for the bill to come to floor votes this year.
"I strongly urge contacting senators and representatives to ask them to co-sponsor the Pain Relief Promotion Act and, especially if they are members of the committees of referral, to push for its prompt consideration," said O'Steen.
(See Action Alert, page 11.)