Assisted Suicide Case Argued Before Supreme Court

By Burke Balch, J.D.

On October 5, the same day NRL News goes to press, the U.S. Supreme Court was set to hear oral argument in the case of Gonzales v. Oregon. At issue is the validity of the Bush Administration position that federally controlled drugs may not be used to assist suicide in Oregon, where assisting certain suicides does not violate state law. Oregon is the only state to date that has specifically legalized euthanasia.

The use of narcotics and other dangerous drugs is generally prohibited by federal law except 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, on June 5, 1998, 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 legal under state law. Oregon is the only state whose law specifically authorizes lethal prescriptions.

On November 6, 2001, the Bush Administration's first Attorney General, John Ashcroft, issued a decision reversing Reno. The decision reinstated the prior uniform federal policy against the prescription of federally controlled drugs to kill patients.

Oregon doctors who use federally controlled drugs to assist suicides in that state brought suit to strike down the Administration decision. Lower courts ruled that the meaning of the federal law and regulations may not be interpreted in a nationwide, uniform fashion by federal authorities, but must instead be interpreted on the basis of state law. From this ruling the Administration sought, and the Supreme Court granted, review.

NRLC Executive Director David N. O'Steen, Ph.D., commented, "The American people do not believe that their federal government should be forced to facilitate assisting suicide through the use of federally controlled drugs. We strongly support the position of the Bush Administration that drugs should be used to cure and relieve pain, not to kill, and trust that the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold this policy."