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ACLJ Asks Supreme Court to Uphold Federal Government Directive Barring Use of Drugs for Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon

Posted on: Monday, 9 May 2005, 15:00 CDT

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), specializing in constitutional law, today filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States asking the high court to overturn a federal appeals court decision that barred enforcement of a directive from then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that said physicians cannot prescribe federally controlled substances - narcotic drugs - for the purpose of killing patients who want to commit suicide. The directive was challenged by the state of Oregon, which adopted a law allowing the prescription of lethal overdoses for assisted suicide.

"The directive is both legally sound and constitutional," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, which has filed briefs in support of the government's position in this case. "The Attorney General clearly has the authority to use a federal statute to take action against doctors who assist terminally ill patients commit suicide. This critically important case raises a key question: should the federal government be permitted to legally prohibit physicians from prescribing life-ending federally controlled drugs to assist patients commit suicide? We are hopeful the Supreme Court will conclude that the federal government has the authority to act and that federal drug laws must take precedence over the state's decision to experiment with legalized assisted suicide."

In a directive issued by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001, the government said that assisting in suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" and stated that physicians who prescribed life-ending drugs would lose their licenses to prescribe federally controlled drugs under the Controlled Substances Act. The state of Oregon challenged that directive claiming it represented a federal usurpation of state control over the practice of medicine.

In its amicus brief (posted online at www.aclj.org) in support of the government's position filed at the high court today, the ACLJ argues that because the directive focuses specifically on the prescription of federally controlled drugs - and not the assisted suicide law itself - the state of Oregon does not have legal standing to challenge the directive.

Oregon also claimed that the directive should be invalidated because it exceeds the power of the federal government to regulate interstate commerce. However, the ACLJ brief demonstrates that the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the authority of Congress to regulate narcotics.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in this case next term. The case is No. 04-623 and is Gonzales v. Oregon.

Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice specializes in constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C. The ACLJ is online at www.aclj.org.

Source: Business Wire

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