cannabisnews.com: Latest Showdown Over Assisted Suicide










  Latest Showdown Over Assisted Suicide

Posted by FoM on November 14, 2001 at 20:52:58 PT
By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff Writer of The CSM 
Source: Christian Science Monitor  

Four years ago, Oregon began a social and medical experiment with profound ethical implications: allowing physicians to help people end their lives. Now, the Bush administration has chosen the state, with its unique suicide law, as a place to shore up its conservative wing by asserting its "pro-life" political credentials. Leading the effort is Attorney General John Ashcroft, an opponent of abortion and legalized suicide since his days as a US senator. Last week, Mr. Ashcroft ruled that under the federal Controlled Substances Act, doctors may not prescribe drugs for the purpose of hastening death.
A federal judge immediately placed a temporary restraining order on Justice Department enforcement of Ashcroft's ruling, and the case is likely headed for the US Supreme Court.The issue is complicated, as a series of legislative debates, ballot measures, and court cases around the country in recent years have shown. It involves medical ethics, federal drug law, questions of privacy, and the balance of legal and political power between states and the federal government.Oregon's Death with Dignity Act became law in 1997, after voters twice had approved it at the polls by wide margins. It applies only to mentally competent adults who declare their intentions in writing, are diagnosed as terminally ill, and take the prescribed drug themselves orally after a waiting period. Oregon's law specifically prohibits "lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia."  How Oregon's law has played out  Critics had predicted that vulnerable patients could be pressured by doctors or family members to end their lives, and also warned that out-of-staters might rush to Oregon to take advantage of its law.Apparently, neither has happened. On average, roughly 20 people a year chose to end their lives under the law.At the same time, what medical practitioners consider ideal end-of-life care has increased here, including palliative treatment for discomfort, hospice care (twice the national average), and care that allows patients to spend their last days at home with families and friends."Oregon's aid-in-dying law is working as intended," says Barbara Coombs Lee, president of the Compassion in Dying Federation, the assisted-suicide law's main advocacy group. "Very few people use medication to hasten their death, yet thousands obtain comfort knowing the choice is theirs if they experience intolerable suffering."  A federal or state issue?  But for others, Oregon's law is as abhorrent as laws that allow abortion."The idea of assisted suicide is a poison pill that kills the dignity of a precious human life," says Ken Cooper, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, the conservative organization once headed by Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer. "It invalidates the concept that once a person becomes unproductive, or is a burden on society, he loses his value and is unworthy of living."The basis for the Ashcroft ruling is that federal law involving drugs supercedes state laws regulating medical practice. It's the same reasoning behind the Justice Department's recent crackdown on facilities in California and other states that allow the provision of marijuana for medical purposes."There are important medical, ethical, and legal distinctions between intentionally causing a patient's death and providing sufficient dosages of pain medication necessary to eliminate or alleviate pain," Ashcroft declared in his directive to federal Drug Enforcement Administrator Asa Hutchinson. "I hereby determine that assisting suicide is not a 'legitimate medical purpose' under [federal law] and that prescribing, dispensing, or administering federally-controlled substances to assist suicide violates the Controlled Substances Act."The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, antiabortion groups, and other conservative organizations hailed the attorney general's ruling.Others see it as an unwarranted interference with a state law. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (who is also a medical doctor) called it an "unprecedented intrusion" on the state's medical practices laws. Some critics suggest that Ashcroft's move could cause a "chilling effect" on doctors who prescribe pain-relieving drugs to patients diagnosed as terminally ill (since the same drugs in larger doses can cause death), thereby increasing suffering among such patients.In previous cases, the US Supreme Court has ruled that assisted suicide is not a constitutional right. But the high court also did not declare the practice to be illegal, in essence inviting the states to grapple with the issue. Or, as Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote: "There is no reason to think the democratic process will not strike the proper balance."That would seem to suggest that Oregon was on the right track in following the wishes of most Oregonians as expressed at the polls.But the Supreme Court also ruled unanimously in a case earlier this year that California's medical marijuana act violates the Controlled Substances Act.One important question now is, should barbiturates and morphine (the legal drugs typically used in physician-assisted suicide) be seen in the same light as marijuana, which is an illegal drug?Advocates of physician-assisted suicide say "no." Attorney General Ashcroft says "yes."Note: US Supreme Court is likely to be asked to settle dispute between Bush administration and Oregon over state's'right to die' law.Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)Author: Brad Knickerbocker, Staff Writer of The CSMPublished: November 15, 2001 EditionCopyright: 2001 The Christian Science Publishing SocietyContact: oped csps.comWebsite: http://www.csmonitor.com/Related Articles:Drugs Are To Help, Not Harm http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11340.shtmlWhat New Era? Its Old Politics in Red White & Bluehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11338.shtml

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Comment #13 posted by Sam Adams on November 15, 2001 at 20:34:55 PT
Mr. Cooper
I'm glad to see that Mr. Cooper respects the great dignity of human life. Boy, he must have been devastated a couple years back when 750,000 humans were chopped to pieces in Rwanda. I guess the news media just didn't cover his organization's vociferous protests of U.S. and UN inaction in that country.I guess the media also just blacked out his organization's great work in urging the U.S. government to intervene in the early and mid 90's, where 5 or 6 years passed of Bosnians being killed, raped and starved while both the Bush and Clinton administrations just held their nose and looked the other way.Or perhaps they've been focussing much of their energy on the 1200 women that are killed by their male partners every year in the US? That must be it. I think I find the Christian right more repugnant than almost any other group of people in the US, even violent criminals. I can at least understand how one could end up going down that path. I honestly cannot imagine how one ends up being Ken Cooper, I just can't do it.Can you IMAGINE if Jesus was actually around today how he would react to these zealots who have hijacked his message? Jesus was the guy that saved the hooker from being stoned! He tried to help the poor and sick, not leverage them to the hilt for some political cause.
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on November 15, 2001 at 18:39:38 PT
xxdr_zombiexx
"Cooper and Ashcroft are Fascists. Ashcroft has an unbelieveably powerful position and is consumed with religious zealotry."It's pretty easy to imagine Mullah Ashcroft! Women must wear long hair, no makeup and skirts. Men must have clean cut haircuts. Everyone is required to participate in formal prayer 5 times per day and attend formal services at least 3 times per week in addition to daily forced Bible study. He, like the Mullahs, hasn't figured out that there is nothing beautiful or good in his loveless and domineering religion.Then Mullah Ashcroft, Mullah Barr, Mullah Mica, and Mullah Souder can have a jihad between them to decide who is the supreme mullah among them.I love the Bible and I love God and I know that forcing false piety and morals down people's throats is not something that pleases God. Deliver us from the arrogant and self-righteous!
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Comment #9 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on November 15, 2001 at 17:59:40 PT

FASICTS
Mr. Cooper's stupidity bothered me all day at work.It's the statement that allowing people to choose to end thier lives "invalidates the concept that once a person becomes unproductive, or is a burden on society, he loses his value and is unworthy of living."Nobody was talking about being "unproductive" or a "burden" to anyone. The NAZI's were famous for speculating on improving society by killing off the retarded, the sick and the lame. It's interesting that Cooper shifts his description of the issue this way.This tells me Mr. Cooper sees the sick and dying as "unproductive burdens". He indicates that he does not fathom how some person might feel that dying would be better than living once one's life becomes so miserable and painful to tolerate. I sure as hell don't want to be kept alive in misery and suffering because these moral weeds think it's in my best interest.I also think it betrays that he is threatened by an internal desire to accept and agree with eliminating the weak and lame and that it produces some disturbing dissonance with his "religious" beliefs. They are burdens, to him. This is inconsistent with general christian values.The issue is not just the right to die, but the right to make one's own choices. That is freedom. Cooper and Ashcroft are Fascists. Ashcroft has an unbelieveably powerful position and is consumed with religious zealotry. It's clearly his personal battle to help "jeeesus" save the suffering from relief.Everybody from the handgun lobby to the death with dignity movement to the right-to-choice groups need to band together to recognize the central issue to all these seemingly different movements. If we can own handguns responsibly then cannabis cannot be all that bad.Autonomy fosters personal responsibility. Fascism will foster despair and irresposibility...and violence.Let the people CHOOSEFREEDOM ENDURES

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Comment #8 posted by FoM on November 15, 2001 at 12:56:00 PT

Hope
Very good Scriptures and so true. 
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on November 15, 2001 at 12:49:21 PT

Excellent description of narcdom in Proverbs
Proverbs 6:16-18 "There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are
detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into
evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension
among brothers.An old message that a wise leader should consider:
Isaiah 10:1 - "Woe to those who make unjust laws and to those who issue
oppressive decrees..."
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Comment #6 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on November 15, 2001 at 05:07:30 PT

Retribution
Read this story I found on FOX: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,38803,00.htmlThe Federal Government is suing the Oregon Supreme Court because the court has banned "decietful practices" by law enforcement and prosecutors.**In papers filed in federal court here, law enforcers and prosecutors say an ethics ban on using such tactics as deceit have shut down numerous undercover operations by the FBI and federal drug agents. **and this is so beautiful:**The government seeks to prevent the Bar from enforcing ethics rules against federal prosecutors on grounds the restrictions are unconstitutional.** It is clear that our government cannot do anything without violating its own laws, the constitution, their own fundamental religious values, or even basic human decency.**In one case, a probe into a "major Mexican drug 
trafficking organization," was delayed after federal agents had bought black tar heroin from the suspects, Philip Donegan Jr., an assistant special agent in charge of the Portland FBI office, said in one court document. **You mean, we can't import heroin?**Justice Department lawyers argue that the ethics rules unconstitutionally interfere with federal officials' ability to perform their duties. They cite the "supremacy clause" in the U.S. Constitution, which says federal activities generally are to be free from state regulation.**Entrapment is thier bread and butter. FREEDOM ENDURES
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Comment #5 posted by goneposthole on November 15, 2001 at 04:42:18 PT

and furthermore
I don't think Mr. Ashcroft has had the wonderful oppurtunity to sit with a dying relative who has a horrible disease such as a malignant glioma. To hope against hope that something can be done and you know that there is no hope. He wouldn't have the intestinal fortitude to be able to do it. He would turn chicken and run like all the congressman did on September 11 when they headed for the bunker.
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Comment #4 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on November 15, 2001 at 04:32:17 PT

Personal sovereignty
The issue here, in the panoramic "big picture" is the concept of personal sovereignty: my notion that each person has the right to make decisions that are necessary, meaningful, and important to one or one's family, as long as accomplished in a manner which does not encroach on the freedoms of others. Basic democracy, actually.Abortion, handgun ownership, death with dignity, choice of sexual lifestyle and identity (though I believe those to be "hardwired issues, people have to have the freedom to live as they see fit), alternative medical practice, including the use of medical cannabis; all these are issues of personal autonomy.And each of these issues has some extreme right-wing, short-haired, super-white controlling conservative group - like the republican party, for example, whose purpose in life it seems is to thwart and prevent you and me from exercizing our autonomy and to violate our sovereignty. Very Taliban-like, actually.Ken cooper is one of those persons who has apparently dedicated his life to interfering in the lives of others. His ridiculous blathering about **The idea of assisted suicide is a poison pill that kills the dignity of a precious human life,** is just horseshit. It is nothing of the sort. It is his and Ashcroft religious rantings that cheapen and demean life as a human being.Both he and Ashcroft seek to enforce THEIR religious views onto you and me. Ashcroft full arrogance shines in his statement:**"I hereby determine that assisting suicide is not a 'legitimate medical purpose' under [federal law] and that prescribing, dispensing, or administering federally-controlled substances to assist suicide violates the Controlled Substances Act."** HE DETERMINES. He is no medical doctor. Asa HUtchinson is certainly not a medical doctor.So what right do they have to tell people what decisions are approriate for them and what is not right? None, actually. All these acts go against the expressed will of the People as carved into stone by the election process.Not to mention the 10 Commandments and the Golden Rule.Apparently those whose livelihoods have come about because their appointing President had his presidency bought via the "Good ol' boy network" feel they are above the law as well.FREEDOM ENDURES
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Comment #3 posted by goneposthole on November 15, 2001 at 04:30:56 PT

How about this?
Place a burqua over the terminally ill patient. You could not tell if they are in pain or not. It wouldn't matter as much, either. Mr. Ashcroft would find a dumb jackass supreme court ruling to support that, too.
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Comment #2 posted by freedom fighter on November 15, 2001 at 01:38:49 PT

With dignity
and peace without real pain..I had a friend who had brain tumor and the doctor told the family to let him pass away painfully without any drugs before calling 911. This doctor was pretty compassionate in a way. After all, doctors are capable of keeping anyone alive as long as they can as long they get paid. This is wrong and morally evil. The question is would we be able to tell someone in our family not to give up because Mr. Ashcroft says so? Have we as nation became helpless people that we need Mr. Axhcroft to decide when we should go based on nine black robed vermins who thought what was best for our lives?With dignity and peaceff
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Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on November 14, 2001 at 21:24:25 PT

The basic idea of democracy is...
The basic idea behind democracy is that most people are not idiots, fools or scoundrels and deserve to be in control of their own destinies."The idea of assisted suicide is a poison pill that kills the dignity of a precious human life," says Ken Cooper, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, the conservative organization once headed by Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer. "It invalidates the concept that once a person becomes unproductive, or is a burden on society, he loses his value and is unworthy of living."No, that's not what assisted suicide is about. That's what denying medical marijuana to people whose doctors believe they need it is all about.Assisted suicide is giving people credit for knowing when their own life is over and allowing them the means to control that exit -- which WE ALL HAVE TO MAKE -- on their own.With dignity.
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