..as the "Culture of Death" marches on...

From here:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration cannot stop doctors from helping terminally ill patients end their lives under the nation's only physician-assisted suicide law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

By a 6-3 vote, the high court ruled that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001 impermissibly interpreted federal law to bar distribution of controlled drugs to assist suicides, regardless of the Oregon law authorizing it.

In a stinging defeat for the administration, the justices upheld a U.S. appeals court ruling that Ashcroft's directive was unlawful and unenforceable, and that he had overstepped his authority.

The Oregon law, called the Death with Dignity Act, was twice approved by the state's voters. The only state law in the nation allowing physician-assisted suicide, it has been used by more than 200 people since it took effect in 1997.

Under Oregon law, terminally ill patients must get a certification from two doctors stating they are of sound mind and have less than six months to live. A prescription for lethal drugs is then written by the doctor, and the patients administer the drugs themselves.

Ashcroft's directive declared that assisting suicide was not a legitimate medical purpose under the Controlled Substances Act and that prescribing federally controlled drugs for that purpose was against the federal law.

The directive threatened to revoke prescription-writing licenses for physicians and pharmacists who filled orders for life-ending drugs.

From the Hippocratic Oath:

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God. (emphasis added)

Again,

Under Oregon law, terminally ill patients must get a certification from two doctors stating they are of sound mind and have less than six months to live. A prescription for lethal drugs is then written by the doctor, and the patients administer the drugs themselves.

My mother was given six weeks to live, diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. She ended up by walking out of hospice, and living another two years, during which time she ministered to other ill patients, and comforted many others. She even convinced a former Wisconsin elected state official to refrain from suicide during a down time in his life. Now, as far as this:

Above all, I must not play at God.

Just who is a "good doctor" playing at when prescribing drugs that will kill his patient?

From the story:

The court's most conservative members — Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts — dissented.

It would have been interesting to see how this case would have turned out had Justice Alito been given the chance to vote on it.


(Filed under Defense of Life)