Judge says feds can't usurp state in assisted suicide. (On First Reading).

It was a victory for states in April when a federal court thwarted the Bush administration's attempt to overturn a voter-backed Oregon law permitting physician-assisted suicide.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones denounced the Justice Department's move to prosecute under federal law doctors who prescribe lethal doses of drugs for their terminally ill and dying patients.

Oregon voters approved their Death with Dignity Act in 1994. It was approved again in 1997 after a failed legal challenge. Some 91 people in the last four years have used the act to end their lives with the help of their doctors.

"The citizens of Oregon, through their democratic initiative process, have chosen to resolve the moral, legal and ethical debate on physician-assisted suicide for themselves," Jones wrote in his order.

He said the Justice Department was attempting to "stifle an ongoing, earnest and profound debate in the various states concerning physician-assisted suicide."

Oregon is the only state with legalized doctor-assisted suicide, but other states are considering similar measures.

The Justice Department had not decided whether to appeal the decision. But Assistant Attorney General Robert McCallum told reporters, "The department remains convinced that its interpretation of the Controlled Substances Act as prohibiting the use of federally controlled drugs to assist suicide is correct."