Oregon v. Ashcroft,

Oregon v. Ashcroft,
No. CIV. 01-1647-JO (D. Or. April 17, 2002)

The
United States District Court for the District of Oregon granted a permanent
injunction in favor of the State of Oregon, preventing the enforcement of United
States Attorney General John Ashcroft’s November 2001 directive that stated
that the use of controlled substances in the implementation of physician-assisted
suicide was a violation of the Controlled Substances Act. The court found that
the Controlled Substances Act was designed to curtail the activities of drug
abusers and traffickers, including practitioners who divert controlled substances.
While it is true that the Act does limit practitioners to dispensing controlled
substances only for purposes consistent with generally accepted medical practice,
it does not grant the Attorney General the power to regulate the practice of
medicine by determining whether or not physician-assisted suicide is a generally
accepted medical practice. The court concluded by noting that, until such time
as the federal government sees fit to prohibit physician-assisted suicide by
statute, the states are left with the power to determine whether physician-assisted
suicide is a generally accepted medical practice. In the meantime, politicians
may not skew the intent of the Controlled Substances Act to control states’
decisions regarding physician-assisted suicide.