Terminally ill doctor joins legal fight over assisted suicide prescriptions.

Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

Dr. Allison Willeford has become a plaintiff in Oregon's lawsuit fighting U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's move to prosecute doctors who write prescriptions for assisted suicide patients.

Willeford's decision is important to continuing the legal battle because eight of the suit's original nine plaintiffs have died - three of them via assisted suicide - since the issue entered the federal court system two years ago, said George Eighmey, executive director of Compassion in Dying.

"To maintain standing, the judge said we must have living plaintiffs who are affected by the law," he said. His group supports the state's position.

Oregon voters passed the Death with Dignity Act in 1994 and reaffirmed their decision in 1997.

Willeford said he's happy to put his face on the cause.

"This is all purely political, and the people of Oregon have said what they want," he said.

If Willeford uses his prescription, he will be the fifth doctor in Oregon known to have chosen physician-assisted suicide, according to Compassion in Dying, which provides resources and support for eligible patients and their families.

A total of 129 Oregonians used the law to hasten their deaths since it went into effect five years ago.

"Compassion in Dying works with about 80 percent of people who go through the legal process, so there could even be more doctors who have chosen it," Eighmey said. "But of the four we've been involved with before Dr. Willeford, all four completed the process - that's a high percentage."

The group maintains a list of about 400 doctors throughout Oregon willing to provide medical opinions or write prescriptions to satisfy the law, as well as a registry of 25 pharmacies willing to dispense the prescriptions.

The American Medical Association has taken a position against physician-assisted suicide. The Oregon Medical Association has a less clear stance, says Jim Kronenberg, the group's associate executive director.

It has ranged from a decision in 1994 to neither support nor endorse the measure, then a decision to oppose the 1997 proposal because of technical flaws that the Legislature has sinced rectified, Kronenberg said.

A poll of the state's 6,800 doctors "probably would be pretty evenly divided between those that would participate in physician-assisted suicide and those that would not," he said. "We leave it up to them. We have drafted legal guidelines to help them comply if they want to participate. It's fine if they do, and it's fine if they don't."

Two years ago, Ashcroft issued a directive forbidding doctors to prescribe medications covered by the federal Controlled Substances Act, with the intention of helping patients end their lives.

Oregon filed suit and won. Ashcroft appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A decision in the case could come at any time.