Justices to Hear Case on Assisted Suicide

The Supreme Court said it will decide whether the Justice Department may bar Oregon doctors from prescribing lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who have chosen to die under that state's 11-year-old Death With Dignity Act.

 The court said it will review a lower court's decision preventing enforcement of a November 2001 statement of Justice Department policy by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The directive said that assisting suicide is not a ``legitimate medical purpose'' under federal drug-control law and that the Drug Enforcement Administration could strip the prescribing rights of any physician who authorized drugs to help someone die. 



 Ashcroft's directive overturned a 1998 decision by President Bill Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, to permit Oregon doctors to assist in suicides. 



 The court's decision sets the stage for a battle next fall over an issue that for years has bitterly divided Americans between those who say physician-assisted suicide is often the only option terminally ill patients have to end their suffering, and those who say it amounts to homicide.