U.S. Government Trying to Intrude in the Private Medical Affairs of Women, Girls and All Americans?

October 5, 2005 -

 

Legal Momentum, the nation's oldest women's legal rights organization, rejects the Attorney General's attempt to seize the power to decide when terminally ill patients can turn to Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.

Just like the tragic Terry Schiavo controversy, the federal government is attempting to change policy set by competent state authorities because it collides with their policy agenda. In Gonzalez v. Oregon, then Attorney General John Ashcroft attempts to subvert Oregon's 1994 Death with Dignity Act, a referendum passed by voters.

In narrowly controlled and rare circumstances physicians prescribe medication to terminally ill patients for the purpose of ending their lives. The Attorney General's office contends prescribing this medication violates "legitimate medical purpose by an individual practitioner (doctor)." The U.S. Attorney General's office wants the power to revoke a practitioner's registration if he or she prescribed controlled substances for this purpose. In spite of state law, Mr. Ashcroft contends assisting suicide serves no "legitimate medical purpose."

The Attorney General has assumed he has the power to overturn the will of Oregon's voters. He doesn't have the credentials to play doctor," says Legal Momentum Legal Director Jennifer Brown. "While this administration espouses smaller government, it wants big government to come between doctors and suffering patients," she adds. "This is a personal relationship not subject to federal government policy. "

If Mr. Ashcroft wants to be a physician, he should go to medical school," says Lisalyn Jacobs, Vice President of Government Affairs in Legal Momentum's Washington office. "By opening this door, it could allow the U.S. government to intrude in the private medical affairs of women, girls and all Americans."

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