Conference turris::womannotes-v5

    A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a challenge to Oregon's
    first-in-the-nation assisted suicide law for the terminally ill, saying
    the specter of involuntary suicides was merely "speculative." 

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, without deciding whether the
    voter-approved law adequately protects patients, said enforcement of
    the law posed no immediate threat to the rights of the woman who sued
    to block the law, or to doctors who have objected to the measure. 

    Dr. Jack Kevorkian predicted that any Supreme Court ruling will affirm
    the law, and that more states will follow Oregon's lead. 

    The issues in the Oregon case differ from those before the Supreme
    Court, which is to decide by early July whether terminally ill patients
    have a constitutional right to physician assistance in suicide. 

    Measure 16 allows Oregon residents to ask for suicide medication if
    their doctors determine they have less than six months to live. 

    Eli Stutsman, a lawyer for the campaign that put the measure on the
    ballot, said two terminally ill people who supported the law and were
    involved in the case died as the lawsuit made its way through the
    courts. 

    "They died a very difficult death," he said. "They would have liked to
    have exercised the choice that was made available to them under Measure
    16."