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January 17, 2006
Union
of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Disappointed with U.S. Supreme
Court Ruling Upholding Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law
Today, the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America – the nation’s
largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization – through its
Institute for Public Affairs, expressed disappointment with a
6-3 ruling by United States Supreme Court overriding the power
of the U.S. Attorney General to block the State of Oregon’s
first-in-the-nation law permitting assisted suicide.
At issue in the case of Gonzales v. Oregon is a November, 2001
directive issued by then-Attorney General Ashcroft to the D.E.A.
Administrator which reinstated the understanding of the federal
Controlled Substances Act that was in place until
former-Attorney General Reno issued a policy directive allowing
the use of federally controlled drugs for assisted suicides in
June, 1998. The Attorney General’s directive determined “that
assisting suicide is not a ‘legitimate medical purpose’ within
the meaning of [the Controlled Substances Act]” and, just as
significantly, the directive stated that the use of federally
controlled drugs for pain treatment ought to be “promoted.” The
State of Oregon challenged the directive in defense of its
“Death With Dignity” law and a federal trial court ruled in the
State’s favor in April, 2001. The Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations has worked diligently in recent years with other
concerned groups such as the American Medical Association and
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to achieve this policy
goal. The Union, joining with other religious groups, filed a
friend of the court brief in this case arguing that there is no
"legitimate medical purpose" which might allow for the
possibility of using federally controlled drugs under federal
law and further contends that Oregon has no cognizable "state
interest" which the federal government must defer to regarding
this issue.
In ruling against the Attorney General, the Court’s majority (in
an opinion authored by Justice Kennedy) based its conclusion
upon the jurisprudence of the parameters in which the executive
branch can interpret ambiguous statutory terms without
sufficiently clear congressional authorization for the
interpretation being propounded.
Nathan Diament, director of the Union’s Institute, issued the
following statement in connection to this morning’s Supreme
Court ruling: “The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations is
disappointed with the Court’s ruling in this case. For
millennia, Judaism has taught the infinite value and sanctity of
human life and that we must seek to preserve it, while at the
same time taking all responsible measures to comfort the ill.
The Bible instructs us to “surely heal” the ill, not to speed
their departure from this earth. But we realize that while the
Court has foreclosed the ability of the Attorney General to
prevent this practice, the ruling merely opens a new chapter in
the debate over the legitimacy of assisted suicide. We are
determined to join with our coalition partners and those in
Congress who recognize the dangers of assisted suicide and work
to enact legislation which will promote the values of caring
properly for the ill.
More information about the Union’s activities and the
perspective of Orthodox Judaism on this issue can be accessed at
http://www.ou.org/public/Publib/suicide.htm
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