Subject:  Geoff comments on assisted suicide |
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Chris
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Date Posted: 10/ 8/05 6:25pm
Locals say assisted-suicide case is misuse of federal drug laws
Web-posted Oct 6, 2005
By HANK SCHALLER
Of The Oakland Press
Two Oakland County attorneys who have defended assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian say a case before the U.S. Supreme Court about federal efforts to block an Oregon law permitting physician-assisted suicide was little more than an attempt by conservatives to misuse federal drug laws to intimidate doctors.
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At issue is whether doctors can be prosecuted under the federal Controlled Substances Act for prescribing lethal doses of painkillers to terminally ill patients.
The dispute began in November 2001, when then-Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a threepage order declaring that assisted suicide was not a "legitimate use" of pain drugs under the controlled substances law.
Oregon is the only state that lets dying patients obtain lethal doses of medication from their doctors, although other states might pass such laws if the Supreme Court rules against the federal government.
"All this is a case where John Ashcroft is trying to misuse federal drug laws to intimidate doctors," said Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who twice managed to get Kevorkian acquitted of assisted-suicide charges in Oakland County.
"This is a private matter between doctors and their patients. I think it's ironic that these so-called conservatives are trying to overrule a states' rights issue."
A similar view was expressed by Mayer Morganroth, a Southfi eld attorney who has been handling appeals of Kevorkian's second-degree murder conviction of in the 1998 death of 52-year-old Thomas Youk, who had Lou Gehrig's disease.
Since his conviction in the spring of 1999, Kevorkian has been serving a 10-to-25-year sentence in the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer that continues after two failed appeals of his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Conservatives are just trying to stop assisted suicide by any means necessary," Morganroth said. "The federal government will do everything they can to overturn this Oregon law even though other courts have already ruled that it is valid."
Tom McMillin, chairman of the issues committee for the Michigan Republican Party, disagreed, saying that the federal government needs to get involved in the issue, if that will put an end to physicianassisted suicide.
"It's sad that we have to debate this thing, because, to allow doctors to help people die - they're supposed to help people live," McMillin said. "Once we allow them to help people die, there is no limit to how far they can go. We saw from Dr. Kevorkian that once Pandora's Box is opened, there are no restrictions on who will be next in line to be assisted to die.
"And it's morally wrong. Whatever the federal government needs to do to stop it, they should do it."
Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor John Skrzynski, who handled the successful prosecution of Kevorkian in Youk's death, said he was not prepared to comment on the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, saying he was not that familiar with the legal arguments.
The nation's first assistedsuicide law won narrow approval from 51 percent of Oregon voters in 1994. An effort to repeal it in 1997 was rejected by 60 percent of voters. The law has been used by 208 people; more have gotten the prescriptions but not taken the drugs.
Defenders of the Oregon law argued that states have always had the power to regulate medical practice and that Congress had intended for the controlled substances law to apply only to illicit use of prescription drugs.
"Our position all along has been that Congress intended to leave the regulation of medicine to the states and that it expected the states to act in a responsible manner," said Robert Atkinson, senior assistant Oregon attorney general, who argued the case.
Solicitor General Paul Clemen, the administration's Supreme Court lawyer, told justices in a filing that 49 states, centuries of tradition, and doctors groups agree that "assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible' with a physician's role as healer."
The Supreme Court likely will wait until early 2006 to issue its decision.
But Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, said the court appeared closely divided on the case. The case might even end in a 4-4 tie, he said, if no decision is made before retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor steps down. In that case, the court would likely schedule new arguments next year.
Staff writer Al Elvin and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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