Ashcroft Gives Docs A Bitter Pill

The Bush Administration's effort to kill Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, allowing assisted suicide, is igniting resistance in other states. Doctors don't want law-enforcement officers looking over their shoulders--and second-guessing their intentions--as they minister to the dying. Although Attorney General John Ashcroft's directive states that the Drug Enforcement Administration does not foresee an "increase in investigative activity...outside of Oregon," even medical groups historically opposed to euthanasia are denouncing the potential intrusion. Dr. Warren Jones, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, called the move a "major travesty" that will encourage physicians to curb the use of pain medications lest their...