Supreme Court Rules that Attorney General Overstepped In Using FDA Rules Against Physicians
[Posted 01/19/06]

The Supreme Court this week upheld Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law. The justices, on a 6-3 vote with Chief Justice John Roberts dissenting, said Congress had not authorized the Attorney General to use prescription drug laws to threaten the licenses of physicians who follow Oregon’s 1997 law.

Although CMA’s longstanding position—reaffirmed by last year’s House of Delegates—is that physician-assisted suicide violates the fundamental ethic of the medical profession to “do no harm,” CMA filed a brief arguing that the federal government does not have the authority to regulate the practice of medicine.

The Supreme Court ruling upholds a 2004 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the federal government’s “unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide.”

Contact: CMA’s legal information line, 415/882-5144 or legalinfo@cmanet.org.