Letter from Oregon Doyle What Catholics ought to learn from Oregon's legalization of physician-assisted suicide
Moore, James & Brian
James Moore & Brian Doyle LETTER FRON OREGON The state of euthanasia In the only state where suicide is legal, the state of the state is confusion. On November 4, Oregon's Ballot Measure 51, which...
...President Bill Clinton waits, too...
...They're way out of line, and they should just butt out...
...he is waiting to see what will happen with the DEA...
...Brian Doyle is editor of the university's Portland Magazine...
...Second, the implied message of the "Yes on 51" campaign was, you made a mistake in 1994, fix it in 1997...
...Second, the church decided to remain neutral on a new antigay measure on the ballot and poured its resources into opposing physician-assisted suicide...
...The ads became a target of ridicule, and were replaced, too late, with a softer one, showing a (real) elderly woman who had been given six months to live but was still happily among the living two years later...
...On November 4, Oregon's Ballot Measure 51, which would have overturned the physician-assisted suicide law (Measure 16) passed by voters in 1994, was soundly defeated, 60-40...
...Led by church leaders, the opposition did succeed in convincing enough legislators that the ballot measure needed to be revisited by the voters in light of new information about the way Measure 16 allowed for assisted suicide (studies showed that a certain number of people do not die immediately from barbiturates, even with high doses, and that in such instances death can be gruesomely prolonged...
...On November 25, U.S...
...So perhaps some voters took the opportunity to vote against the Catholic church...
...In addition to large financial contributions, then-Archbishop William Levada directed priests in the archdiocese to attack the measure from the pulpit...
...Voters appear to base their votes upon their personal experiences as much as, perhaps more than, their religious views...
...Oregon's Catholic leaders misread the situation...
...So, from being a fringe issue, assisted suicide quickly entered into the mainstream of societal concerns in Oregon...
...Many of them emitted the unmistakable stench of anti-Catholic bigotry...
...No on 51" ads were noticeably absent from most venues except AM radio...
...Oregonians did not think that they had made a mistake, and the backlash was considerable...
...Once Measure 16 passed three years ago, the idea of assisted suicide changed in Oregon-it became reality, the law, normal, even as it languished in court...
...The governor, John Kitzhaber, M.D., who spent years working in an emergency room, tiptoed around the issue: "It's up to Oregon voters to determine what appropriate medical practice is, and they've done so...
...minors are specifically prohibited from physician-assisted suicide...
...Television stations thought that the actor looked like a minor...
...A chilling conclusion from Oregon: The issue of assisted suicide will increasingly be put to American voters...
...According to White House spokesman, Mike McCurry, the president opposes doctor-assisted suicide, but has no official stance on Oregon's law or the DEA 's statement...
...but polls also showed that about 20 percent of them opposed the means mandated by Measure 16...
...Catholics must get better at making the case against killing the dying...
...First, the initial TV repeal ads had to be quickly pulled in most media markets...
...The state soon led the country in per-capita consumption of morphine-an indication that physicians were not just discussing pain management, but were taking action to ease patients' last days...
...First, Oregonians found twenty-seven measures on their ballots, among them another antigay measure...
...While Catholics are the largest single religious group in Oregon, they make up only 10 percent of the population, and Oregon (with Alaska and Washington) is one of the most unchurched states in the nation...
...Pre-election polls showed that a consistent 60-65 percent of voters approved of assisted suicide...
...Thus was born Measure 51, designed to repeal Measure 16...
...The combination of the church's change in stance on the antigay-rights measure, along with its very public attacks on assisted suicide, alienated a percentage of Oregon's electorate...
...Doctors started to focus on pain management, especially during the last months of life...
...Third, the relatively more scarce "No on 51" ads were equally off-target...
...So, in Oregon, everyone waits: doctors, fearful of losing their DEA registration...
...District Judge Michael Hogan of Oregon left antisuicide activists one last legal hope: a February 1998 hearing on "standing to sue...
...All things being equal, the calculation was that the repeal would be successful if about 10,000 voters switched from their 1994 positions...
...The repeal forces raised about $4 million for their campaign, five times as much as the "No on 51" campaign...
...Since the 1994 election had been decided by 30,000 votes, and since a smaller turnout could be counted on for the special off-year 1997 election, the "Yes on 51" campaign aimed its efforts at those people who did not approve of the means of physician-assisted suicide...
...On November 5, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency issued this statement: "The Controlled Substances Act authorizes the DEA to revoke the registration of physicians who dispense controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose....[Issuing a prescription for deadly doses of medication] would be, in our opinion, a violation of the Act...
...The "Yes on 51" campaign was directed and funded primarily by three groups: the Catholic church, National Right to Life, and a group of Oregon physicians...
...In 1925, the Supreme Court overturned a state law that prohibited private education, a measure largely sponsored by the Ku Klux Klan...
...No further comment...
...The campaign focused on the shortcomings of Measure 16 itself, not on the issue of assisted suicide...
...People talked in their workplaces, among friends, within families about assisted suicide and quality-of-care for the dying...
...James Moore is professor of political science at the University of Portland, in Oregon...
...The 1997 attempt to repeal the law came about because opponents could not persuade the Oregon legislature to repeal or alter it...
...That is a stunning margin, given that the 1994 law passed by a mere two percentage points...
...How will other local churches do as this issue makes its way across the country...
...One featured a young man in a medical waiting room preparing to pick up his suicide prescription...
...But then in 1994, Ballot Measure 16 passed by a hair, for two reasons...
...In short, the Catholic church doesn't have much political sway, is sensitive to anti-Catholic sentiments, and involves itself in only a few political issues...
...and the Catholic church, rattled by an overwhelming political defeat...
...In the days following, the media were filled with two reactions, summed up, on one side, by Republican Senator Gordon Smith ("I support this action") and on the other by Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio ("the DEA is attempting to make criminals of physicians helping Oregoni-ans with very personal, difficult decisions...
...Ever since, Oregon Catholics have felt a certain edginess in political matters...
...The suicide measure was the most important referendum on the ballot that year, but there were so many other measures that voters' attention was splintered...
...politicians, fearful (with the exception of Smith) of contravening a law twice approved by their constituents...
...Why then did the repeal fail...
...In 1992, the Oregon Catholic Conference played a major role in defeating the first of several antigay ballot measures...
...Repeal ads flooded televisions, radios, newspapers, mailboxes, and lawn signs across the state...
...One called on voters to prevent religion from forcing its views on the rest of us, an ad paid for by the "Don't Let 'em Shove Their Religion down Your Throat Committee...
...Politicians were asked their opinions...
...There is a serious base of support in America for physician-assisted suicide...
...A little history of Catholicism and politics in Oregon will help here...
...Conclusions...
...patients, unable to find doctors to prescribe deadly doses of medicine...
Vol. 124 • December 1997 • No. 22
