House votes to ban assisted suicides

On October 27, by a vote of 271 to 156, the House passed a bill to bar the use of federally controlled drugs used for physician-assisted suicide, while allowing doctors to use such controlled substances for the aggressive alleviation of pain. The bill (HR 2260) would effectively overturn a current Oregon law that allows doctors to issue lethal prescriptions to the terminally ill. The bill, which sponsors called the "Pain Relief Promotion Act," would authorize a Department of Health and Human Services program for training in "palliative care," or pain management.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) decided in 1997 that providing or administering drugs to assist in suicide violates the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. In 1998, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno overruled that decision, and declared exempt drugs used under the Oregon low allowing lethal prescriptions. HR 2260 would allow prescription of pain-killing drugs even If they increased the chance of death as long as they were not intended to kill the patient

Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde (R.Ill.) sponsored the bill as an attempt to preserve respect for human life. Allowing assisted suicide, like allowing abortion, Hyde said, makes Americans devalue life. "Suicide is the ultimate act of despair, and facilitating the intentional killing of a human life is the opposite of healing. The opposite of alleviating pain, it is a surrender to hopelessness when there are other options that reject the culture of death."

Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Tex.), who is strongly pro-life and opposes euthanasia, voted against the bill because, even though it is tied to federally controlled substances, he believes it would violate states' rights and create another federal agency. "I disagree with the Oregon law. If I were in Oregon, I would vote against that law. But I believe the approach here is a legislative slippery slope. What we are doing Is applying this same principle of Roe v. Wade by nationalizing law and, therefore, doing the wrong thing."

Hyde denied any intrusion of states' rights. "Some of us here today cry federal preemption of a state law when really what we are dealing with is state preemption of a federal law. We can advocate the federal government looking the other way on this issue, play Pontius Pilate, wash our hands, but we have to think about it because there is a sanctity of life that must be respected and defended."

Rep. Nancy Johnson (R.-Conn.) sponsored an amendment in the nature of a substitute that would have encouraged palliative care by spending $18 million over three years to train doctors on how to relieve pain, especially in the terminally ill, but would not have voided any state laws. Johnson said her amendment was designed to correct what she saw as a flaw in the underlying bill that would discourage many doctors from prescribing pain medicine for fear that they might be violating some law. "With little or no medical training, [DEA] agents would have to judge if a physician intended to relieve pain even at the risk of death or intended to 'hasten death.'" Her amendment failed 188 to 239.

A "yes" vote was a vote to bar doctors from using federally controlled substances in assisted suicides, effectively voiding the Oregon law that permits such procedures. A "no" vote was a vote against the bill.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 19, 1999
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