US Supreme Court upholds Oregon's Death with Dignity Act

In a 6-3 decision the US Supreme Court last week upheld Oregon's law on doctor assisted suicide. The dissenters were the chief justice, John Roberts, and judges Anthony Scalia and Clarence Thomas. The ruling said the 1997 Oregon law, which allows doctors to end the lives of terminally ill people who ask for it, trumped federal authority to regulate doctors.

This was a setback for the Bush administration's attempt, in a case called Gonzales versus Oregon, to punish doctors by prosecuting them …