Come die in Oregon, Supreme Court assisted suicide ruling
Tuesday, January 17, in a 6-3 vote, the US Supreme Court validated Oregon’s unique 1997 physician-assisted suicide statute, the Death with Dignity law, used to end the lives of 200+ terminally ill patients. The ruling backed a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that former-Attorney General John Ashcroft’s "unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide." Consequently, the Bush administration improperly tried to use federal drug law to prosecute Oregon doctors who prescribe overdoses. "The authority desired by the government is inconsistent with the design of the statute in other fundamental respects. The attorney general does not have the sole delegated authority under the (law)," Kennedy wrote for himself, retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer.
The Court’s Ruling, SupremeCourtUS.gov
DeathWithDignity.org