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

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), specializing in constitutional law, said today the Supreme Court of the United States must uphold a federal government directive barring the use of federally controlled narcotics for physician-assisted suicide. The Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in a case out of Oregon - a case in which the ACLJ filed an amicus brief asking the high court to overturn a federal appeals court decision in the case.

"This is the first of several critical cases involving the protection of life at the Supreme Court this term and we are hopeful the high court will recognize that the federal government's action is both legally sound and constitutional," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, who attended today's arguments at the Supreme Court and filed briefs in support of the government's position in this case. "The Supreme Court must conclude that the federal government does have the authority to act and prohibit physicians from prescribing life-ending drugs to assist patients commit suicide. There is no legitimate medical purpose for the use of these federally-controlled substances to take the life of a patient who wants to 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 directive was challenged by the state of Oregon, which adopted a law allowing the prescription of lethal overdoses for assisted suicide. Oregon claimed the directive represented a federal usurpation of state control over the practice of medicine.

The ACLJ's amicus brief (posted online at www.aclj.org) supports the government's position and 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.

The case is No. 04-623 and is Gonzales v. Oregon. A decision by the high court is likely to be months away.

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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