Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Controlled Substances Act: Gonzales v. Oregon (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Feb. 7, 2006 |
| Report Number |
RL33120 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Brian T. Yet, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
The state of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (ODWDA) is the first and only state law in the
nation
that legalizes physician-assisted suicide. The ODWDA permits Oregon physicians to prescribe a
lethal dose of medication to mentally competent, terminally ill patients, who then may voluntarily
elect to hasten their death.
Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), a federal law that regulates the legal and illicit
manufacture, distribution, and possession of drugs, a physician may prescribe controlled substances
to patients only for a "legitimate medical purpose." In 2001, then-U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft issued a memorandum in which he declared that physician-assisted suicide is not a
"legitimate medical purpose" for prescribing federally controlled substances. The "Ashcroft
Directive" potentially subjected Oregon doctors who prescribed drugs pursuant to the ODWDA to
criminal prosecution for violating the CSA and to a loss of the privilege to prescribe controlled
substances.
On November 7, 2001, the state of Oregon, an Oregon physician and pharmacist, and several
terminally ill patients filed a lawsuit to prevent the enforcement of the Ashcroft Directive. A federal
district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held the Directive invalid and
unenforceable because Congress did not authorize the Attorney General to determine that
physician-assisted suicide is not a legitimate medical purpose under the CSA. These courts
determined that Congress did not intend for the CSA to override a state's traditional power to
regulate the practice of medicine.
Attorney General Ashcroft appealed the Ninth Circuit's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alberto Gonzales had replaced John Ashcroft as Attorney General by the time the Court agreed to
review the case. On January 17, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Oregon
affirmed the
judgment of the Ninth Circuit, ruling that the Directive is not entitled to the traditional judicial
deference customarily accorded to a federal agency's interpretation of a regulation or statute, and,
furthermore, that the Directive is unenforceable because the CSA does not authorize the Attorney
General to prohibit the distribution of federally controlled substances for the purposes of facilitating
an individual's suicide.
