Suicide Law Left In State Of Limbo Appeals Court Dismisses Challenge To Oregon Law
Though a federal court ruling Thursday leaves Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law in a state of suspended animation, advocates believe it brings them to the brink of success.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directed U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the law passed by voters in 1994.
Bob Schwartz, a 46-year-old AIDS patient from Portland whose partner died of AIDS-related illness in 1995, said he was relieved but cautious.
“We have little small victories and then the rug’s pulled out from under us,” he said. “The whole AIDS thing has been like that from day one.”
“Tell the world that I’m very happy,” said Tim Shuck, who intervened in the case on behalf of the state of Oregon, which argued federal courts should clear the way for the first state law allowing assisted suicide.
“All along I’ve always wanted the right to have that choice,” said Shuck, 48, who said he’s never been ill enough from AIDS that he was ready to take his own life. “What can I say but wonderful.”
Like Shuck, Schwartz said he wasn’t anxious to use the law to obtain a lethal dose of prescription drugs, but that he wants the option.
A spokesman for Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers said the law could not take effect until Hogan dismisses the lawsuit, a matter of weeks at the earliest. Opponents were expected to seek court orders nullifying Thursday’s ruling before then.
“No, Measure 16 does not go into effect tomorrow,” said attorney general’s spokesman Peter Cogswell. A spokeswoman for Hogan said he would not comment.
Opponents can ask for further review by a larger panel of judges of the San Francisco appeals court. They also can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. The nation’s highest court already is reviewing laws from Washington state and New York intended to forbid assisted suicide.
Still, Geoff Fieger, an attorney for Michigan assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, said the ruling doomed efforts to block assisted suicide. Any Supreme Court ruling will affirm Oregon voters’ decision to allow assisted suicide, and more states will follow Oregon’s lead, he said.
“It’s all over,” Fieger said. “Regardless of what they rule, there will be a state that permits it. And in the future there will be more.”
Oregon voters narrowly passed the initiative enacting the law in the November 1994 general election. Hogan put the law on hold one day before it was to take effect in December 1994, pending review.
Opponents argued Oregon’s law puts terminally ill people at risk of being coerced into taking their own lives. Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, said Thursday’s ruling “will put at risk the poor, the disabled, minorities and those without access to health care.”
Oregon’s Roman Catholic Church vehemently opposed the ballot measure, devoting proceeds of a special Sunday collection to the battle to defeat it. Oregon Catholic Conference executive director Bob Castagna said opponents will move aggressively to block Thursday’s ruling.