Number: RL33120
Title: Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Controlled Substances Act: Gonzales v. Oregon
Authors: Brian T. Yet, American Law Division 
Abstract: The circumstances giving rise to Gonzales v. Oregon involved the emotionally charged political and moral debate over physician-assisted suicide and end-of-life decision making. However, the matter in controversy did not require the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the merits of physician-assisted suicide or the constitutionality of the Oregon statute that sanctioned and regulated such practice. Rather, it presented the Court with a question concerning the scope of authority granted by a federal statute: Whether the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and its implementing regulations authorized the Attorney General to prohibit the distribution of federally controlled substances for the purpose of facilitating an individual's suicide, regardless of the state of Oregon's law that permits such distribution. Writing the opinion of the Court, which was joined by five other justices, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy relied on a statutory interpretation of the CSA to determine that the Attorney General had exceeded his authority under the CSA when he issued a rule declaring the use of controlled substances for physicianassisted suicide to be a violation of the CSA. As a consequence of this decision, a physician acting pursuant to the Oregon Death with Dignity Act to hasten the death of a terminally ill patient does not commit a per se violation of the CSA - thus he or she cannot be subjected to federal criminal prosecution on this particular ground, nor can the physician's authority to prescribe controlled substances be revoked on this basis.
Pages: 18
Date: February 7, 2006