CMA Doctors Applaud Assisted Suicide Case Appeal.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's largest faith-based association of physicians today applauded the U.S. government for appealing to the Supreme Court to uphold the federal government's right to regulate controlled substances, which Oregon allows its doctors to use when committing assisted suicides.

The Christian Medical Association applauded the Justice Department's appeal of a slim majority decision of the U.S. Court Of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which allowed the use in Oregon of otherwise federally controlled narcotics for assisted suicide.

David Stevens, M.D., Executive Director of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association (www.cmawashington.org), noted, "The Controlled Substances Act was designed to prevent using drugs for non-medical purposes in every state--not every state except Oregon. When a state or a doctor uses such drugs not to heal or to relieve pain, but simply to kill, that is not a medical purpose; it is killing. Killing doesn't require medical training or compassion."

Associate Executive Director Gene Rudd, MD added, "What we need is not more power for doctors who use drugs to kill their patients, but more power for doctors who use drugs to heal and comfort their patients. That's what medicine is all about. First, do no harm."

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