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Catholic World News News Feature

Debate Over When Oregon Euthanasia Law In Effect November 06, 1997

EUGENE, Oregon (CWN) - Now that Oregon's voters have turned an effort to repeal the state's first-in-the-country assisted suicide law, supporters and critics were debating on Wednesday when the law can go into effect.

The law, which was originally passed in 1994, has never been used because of legal challenges and now the state attorney general's office says the law has been in effect since October 27 when a federal court threw out a 1994 injunction. But pro-life groups said the injunction remains in effect until US District Judge Michael Hogan repeals his order. Either way, opponents said they will file a lawsuit and try to persuade a judge to block the law again.

Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit also spoke out on Wednesday after voters blocked the repeal effort on Tuesday. "The decision of the Oregon voters to retain their state law authorizing assisted suicide opens a new and very tragic chapter in the moral and cultural history of our country," said the cardinal. "For Catholics, Christians and people of religious conviction, the results of this election must be seen against the backdrop of God's law: the legal toleration of euthanasia in no way makes it morally acceptable." The Detroit-area has been the focal point of the assisted suicide debate as activist Jack Kevorkian has assisted almost 100 people in killing themselves since 1990.