[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21736]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, we know that Attorney General Ashcroft is 
very busy. His Department is attempting to track down the perpetrators 
of the anthrax attacks on our citizenry. And there are more than 1,000 
Federal detainees who need to be interrogated and investigated for 
possible links to terrorism. There are other possible terrorist cells 
he tells us that are at work in the United States to be exposed and 
uprooted. He has recently warned us of other potential impending 
attacks.
  He is a very, very busy gentleman, obviously. But unfortunately not 
busy enough to keep him from making mischief. Today he took a day off 
from the war against terrorism in a detour to launch his own attack on 
the people of the State of Oregon.
  Oregon twice passed a law to provide death with dignity, assisted 
suicide. We built in extraordinary protections. People had to have a 
terminal diagnosis within 6 months. It had to be confirmed by more than 
one physician. They had to undergo psychological evaluation. No one 
could administer the prescription to them, but a physician could 
provide it if they so chose.
  He sees this as an assault on the American people and feels that it 
takes priority, I guess, even in these busy times for him, to undo. And 
unfortunately, the mischief of the work he is doing here goes far 
beyond the State of Oregon. Because what he is doing will chill the 
aggressive management of pain for people with terminal illnesses across 
the United States.
  This is an area in which we have made a little bit of progress in the 
last quarter of a century. It is no longer considered that someone has 
to die in extraordinary pain. More and more physicians will treat that 
aggressively, even at the risk of potentially shortening someone's life 
by a tiny bit just to make them more comfortable.
  But because of this decision and this action by Attorney General 
Ashcroft, that is not going to happen anymore. Because physicians 
across America and most assuredly in Oregon are going to have to worry 
that the Drug Enforcement Administration using the Controlled 
Substances Act, people totally unqualified in the practice of medicine, 
are going to be looking over their shoulder and wanting to know what 
was their intent in writing that prescription.
  Now, Mr. Ashcroft rather innocently says in his memorandum here that 
they will just probably prosecute people by looking for the required 
paperwork in the State of Oregon, but he does not limit the lengthy 
opinion here to that extent. There is lots more mischief to be done by 
this zealotry.
  Thirty people last year in Oregon, 30 people chose to use the Death 
With Dignity Act by their own hand, humanely ending their lives just a 
bit early to avoid horrible suffering. Now, what is wrong with that? 
What is so dangerous about that that the Attorney General has to take a 
full day off from the war on terrorism and divert some of his staff 
from the war on terrorism to an attack on the initiative of the State 
of Oregon, of the people of Oregon, and the idea of death with dignity?
  This is extraordinary to me. And doing it by manipulating the 
Controlled Substances Act and injecting the Drug Enforcement 
Administration into these extraordinarily sensitive end-of-life 
decisions which should involve an individual, their loved ones, their 
minister, pastor, priest, rabbi, a counselor, psychologist, friends. 
But why does the Drug Enforcement Administration have to be in that 
room? Why should they be involved and intervene in this sort of 
decision? They have no qualifications. They have no right. They have no 
place. Leave the people of Oregon alone.
  In fact, I would suggest that perhaps Attorney General Ashcroft would 
want to focus his efforts on defending the people of Oregon and the 
people of the United States against all unwarranted attacks and also 
protect our civil liberties and our states right at the same time, 
which he is certainly not doing with this decision.

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