Justices to settle assisted suicide conflict

[NVMojo]

and here's why Limbaugh is slamming down on Clint Eastwood for "Million Dollar Baby" ...

February 23, 2005

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear the Bush administration's challenge to the United States' only right-to-die law, setting the stage for a showdown over whether states may permit doctors to prescribe drugs intended to end patients' lives.

The justices will decide whether Oregon's Death with Dignity Act violates federal drug-control laws. The case will be argued during the court's fall term.

Oregon's voters have approved the right-to-die measure twice. The law passed 51 percent to 49 percent in 1994, but never went into effect because of a court ruling. In 1997, voters rejected an effort to repeal the law, endorsing it 60 percent to 40 percent.

The law extends a right to die only to capable adults who are diagnosed as "suffering from a terminal disease" that is likely to take their life within six months. A second doctor must confirm that the patient is dying, is acting voluntarily and is competent to choose to end his or her life. Only then may the doctor prescribe lethal medication.

more...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002187594_suicide23.html

[rodeodance]

1. Justices Accept Oregon Case Weighing Assisted Suicide

I, for one, am glad to see that they took this case.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/politics/23scotus.html?th

Justices Accept Oregon Case Weighing Assisted Suicide
By LINDA GREENHOUSE

Published: February 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 - In an action likely to reopen a national debate over whether doctors should be able to help terminally ill patients end their lives, the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear the Bush administration's challenge to the only state law in the country that authorizes physician-assisted suicide.

Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, the administration's target, was approved twice by the state's voters and took effect in November 1997. According to the state, in a brief filed last month, 171 patients have used the law to administer lethal doses of federally regulated drugs that their doctors prescribed for them.

In the administration's view, suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" under regulations that carry out the federal Controlled Substances Act. Consequently, the administration will argue before the Supreme Court, as it did unsuccessfully in the lower federal courts, that doctors who prescribe drugs for committing suicide violate the federal law and are subject to revocation of their federal prescription license. The license applies to broad categories of medications and is necessary, as a practical matter, for a doctor to remain in practice.

The Bush administration's position, announced in November 2001 by John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, reversed the response to the Oregon law by Janet Reno, the attorney general in the Clinton administration........

[rodeodance]

2. What your you mean with your Clint Eastwood remark?

[NVMojo]

6. the story is right exactly below this one on the news sidebar on the main

DU webpage.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1259729

[HuckleB]

3. Let's get rid of states altogether! And while we're at it, end the vote!

There is no justification for this whatsoever. The Bush administration simply throws tantrum after tantrum until others weary of it and let them have their way. That's not leadership. That's the scumbag way to power.

If "Gonzalez" wins, it may be time for every state to think about secession. It will only be the beginning. And I'm not one for slippery slope arguments.

[HuckleB]

4. "Million Dollar Baby" is simply a great movie.

It was not made as a political statement. It is story telling done incredibly well. Let's not give scum like Limbo power by acknowledging their ridiculous attacks upon the story tellers. Humans make all kinds of decisions, but that doesn't make the depiction of them necessarily a political statement.

That said, Eastwood's challenge of the ADA elsewhere does piss me off, yet you don't hear Limbo discussing that, do you?

[Gyre]

5. These nine losers aren't going to settle crap.

There's no evidence that any of them have a clue about real life.

Gyre

[HuckleB]

7. A kick for Oregon.

[HuckleB]

8. One last kick.