Tuesday October 4, 2005
US Supreme Court Begins Hearings in Assisted Suicide Case Tomorrow
WASHINGTON, October 4, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments in its first assisted suicide case since 1997. The case, Gonzales v. Oregon, is the federal government’s challenge to Oregon’s assisted suicide law. It is also the first case for newly confirmed chief justice John Roberts, who joined the court September 29.
The Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether the lower federal courts properly ruled that former Attorney General John Ashcroft overstepped his authority as attorney general by issuing a 2001 directive that applied criminal penalties to doctors who participate in physician-assisted suicide in Oregon.
Ashcroft’s 2001 directive stated that “Assisting suicide is not a ‘legitimate medical purpose’ . . . and that prescribing, dispensing, or administering federally controlled substances to assist suicide violates the federal Controlled Substances Act.”
In November last year, Ashcroft requested an appeal of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals May 2004 ruling that upheld the Oregon law, sending the case to the Supreme Court.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
White House Appeals Oregon Assisted Suicide Law to Supreme Court
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04110905.html
tv
Latest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.

- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats

- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case

- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6

- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation

- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative

- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum

- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats

- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"

- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors

- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms

- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment

- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues

- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters

- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"

- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts

- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser

- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)

- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal

- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups

Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS:
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page
Last 10 Days
Archives
Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.







Back to Top