May 24, 2002 Posted: 9:27 PM EDT (0127 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/05/24/oregon.assisted.suicide/index.html
From Terry Frieden
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department on Friday appealed a court ruling that upheld the Oregon law allowing physican-assisted suicide.
Government lawyers gave formal notice to a federal court in Portland they will ask the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the nation's only state law that permits assisted suicide.
"Pain management, in contrast to assisted suicide, has long been recognized as a legitimate medical purpose justifying physicians dispensing of controlled substances," Assistant Attorney General Robert McCallum said in a written statement issued Friday in Washington.
"There are important medical, ethical, and legal distinctions between intentionally causing a patient's death and providing sufficient dosages of pain medications to eliminate or alleviate pain," McCallum said.
The Justice Department, led by Attorney General John Ashcroft,
was unsuccessful in arguing its case in U.S. District Court. But
the Ashcroft and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson
asked the appeals court to overturn the April 17 ruling upholding
the Oregon statute.