CLINTON ADMINISTRATION REFUSES TO INTERVENE IN ASSISTED SUICIDES

WASHINGTON, June 8 (LSN) – On Friday, Attorney General Janet Reno forbade agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration to act on the advice of their chief, Thomas Constantine, who warned doctors that the DEA would revoke the licenses of those who prescribed lethal drugs under Oregon’s new law permitting physician-assisted suicide. Reno said that “There is no evidence the Congress, in the Controlled Substances Act, intended to assign DEA the novel role of resolving (what the Supreme Court last year called) the ‘earnest and profound debate about the morality, legality and practicality of physician-assisted suicide.’”  Lori Hougens of the National Right to Life Committee in Washington said that the decision to “pull the safety net out from under the most vulnerable people in our society, people who are terminally ill,  people with severe disabilities,” is “unconscionable.” House Representative Christopher Smith, R-N.J.,  co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, vowed “a massive, bipartisan effort in Congress to reinstate the DEA’s position.”