Associated Press - Oregon Lawmakers Brace for Bid to Undo Supreme Court Assisted Suicide Ruling

January 18, 2006
By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- Even as they cheered the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the state's assisted suicide law, Oregon lawmakers said Tuesday they expect the ruling to be challenged in Congress.

"I've always thought that at some point this is coming back to the halls of Congress," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in an interview. "My sense is with the elections coming up people will make an issue of it."

Wyden blocked attempts to overturn the assisted suicide law in 2000 by threatening a filibuster.

He said Tuesday he will "fight tooth and nail" to block any congressional attempts to overturn the court ruling, but added that the makeup of the Senate may make his job more difficult than it was six years ago.

Republicans have expanded their majority in the Senate since then, and many new lawmakers are more conservative than those they replaced, Wyden said. Still, he pointed to two developments that could be helpful as he and other supporters work to defend the Oregon law, which the high court upheld on a 6-3 ruling Tuesday.

The court rejected a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die, saying that a federal drug law does not override the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people.

First, Wyden said, the public showed its disgust after Congress approved a special law allowing doctors to reinsert a feeding tube for Terri Schiavo, a brain-dead Florida woman whose case became a national sensation.

Several senators, including some who opposed his efforts to block the Schiavo bill, told him later that "Congress had no business being involved" in such a personal decision, Wyden said.

"I think there was a powerful message after the Schiavo case that gut-wrenching, enf-of-life decisions are not to be decided by government, but by families and individuals," he said. "The United States Congress is not a medical court of appeals."

The second factor is more local but may be just as important, Wyden said: Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican who opposes the assisted suicide law, said Tuesday that the Supreme Court decision should be the final word on the much-disputed law.

"This case has run the full length of the American legal process, and the issue is now settled law," Smith said in a prepared statement. "Regardless of my personal position on assisted suicide, Oregon's law has been tested at every branch of our government and the judgment of Oregon's voters has been affirmed. I accept the Supreme Court's decision and Congress should do the same."

Wyden called Smith's statement welcome and helpful, and said Republican senators who may be inclined to challenge the Oregon law should consider Smith's words carefully.

A prominent opponent of the assisted suicide law said Congress is not the only place where the ruling is likely to be challenged.

"I think this is going to become a state-by-state issue, with legislation in 49 states not all in favor of assisted suicide," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice.

The ruling takes the issue "from the judicial arena to the legislative arena and debate in 49 states," Sekulow said.

But Oregon members of Congress said their focus would be on the House and Senate.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., called the ruling "good news for Oregonians" and said he hoped the strong 6-3 majority "makes a difference" in persuading opponents that the law has solid support.

"I'm hopeful it will make it less likely that we will have these horrific Terri Schiavo-like circuses in the future," Blumenauer said.

Still, Blumenauer said he expected congressional opponents to introduce bills outlawing assisted suicide.

"At a time when some people in Washington, D.C., would very much like to change the subject they don't want to talk about the war in Iraq and have seen conservative icons tarnished this has been an effective tool in the past to change the subject and mobilize some people," he said.

"I would hope it's not so much a battle as a discussion," Blumenauer added. "I would hope it's not a struggle of people trying to impose their narrow views."

Rep. Greg Walden, who opposes assisted suicide, said Oregon voters have twice passed a law allowing it.

"As I said when I first ran for Congress, I would not go to Washington, D.C. to overturn the will of Oregonians," Walden said. "I am pleased that the United States Supreme Court has respected the majority opinion of Oregon voters by allowing this law to stand."