PROTECT END-OF-LIFE CHOICE

Petition Target: President George Bush

We, the undersigned petitioners, to protest an unjust and inhumane action of the Attorney General of the United States, and to seek to have it overturned, do hereby declare as follows:

WHEREAS Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Nov. 6 that he is directing the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to take action against the prescribing licenses of Oregon physicians who prescribe drugs designed to enable terminally ill, mentally competent patients to hasten their death, and
WHEREAS the Attorney General’s decision effectively guts the only death-with-dignity law in the U.S., and
WHEREAS that law was twice supported by a majority of Oregon voters, and
WHEREAS that law makes Oregon the only state in the country to allow terminally ill residents to get professional medical help in hastening their deaths, and
WHEREAS the law is the most compassionate and humane approach to helping the terminally ill at precisely the time they are most in need of comfort and support, and
WHEREAS three years of experience with the Oregon law has established beyond any doubt that the law is carefully applied, and that the fears of opponents – including widespread suicides in inappropriate cases of depression – are unfounded, and
WHEREAS the Attorney General’s position that the recent Supreme Court ruling on marijuana is a basis for overturning the Oregon law is ludicrous on its face because none of the drugs being prescribed by Oregon physicians are illegal, and
WHEREAS the issue of whether to allow professional help for the hopelessly ill as they struggle with their end-of-life choices is properly with the states, and
WHEREAS by the Attorney General’s decision the President is abandoning his own fervently held political beliefs by overriding states’ rights with unjustified federal intervention, and
WHEREAS the Attorney General’s decision will increase violent suicides and illegal mercy killings among the terminally ill in Oregon, and needlessly prolong suffering among those terminally ill Oregonians who have decided to end their life to end their suffering, and
WHEREAS the Attorney General’s decision blocks residents in other states who want to enact laws similar to Oregon’s,

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,

that we call on President Bush to recognize what is compassionate and humane, and direct his Attorney General to rescind his decision to gut Oregon’s death-with-dignity law, and reaffirm his commitment to allowing states to determine appropriate health-care policy where there is no compelling federal interest.