Oregon, assisted suicide and the right to life The reader of this article will learn how the right to life movement is becoming dramatically involved in the battle on assisted suicide in the state of Oregon. The NRLC (National Right to Life Committee), as well as the state group RTL, is participating in the court battle stemming from Oregon's November 2001 court challenge to the Ashcroft decision, brought to keep assisted suicide practices functioning without hitches in Oregon. The Right to Life Committee and Oregon Right to Life filed a brief with the court in the case challenging U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's recent decision that the Controlled Substances Act does not permit the use of level-controlled drugs federal government for assisted suicide. Under the Ashcroft decision, doctors who prescribe controlled drugs for assisted suicide could lose their license to prescribe any federally controlled drugs, which would effectively end the practice of medicine for many doctors. The brief supports the US position, arguing that the Ashcroft decision should be upheld. (Oregon) In November 2001, the State of Oregon filed a lawsuit challenging the Ashcroft ruling, charging that it effectively nullified Oregon's law allowing physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Oregon is the only state to have legalized physician-assisted suicide. Oregon was joined in Oregon v. Ashcroft by a number of people seeking assisted suicide, a doctor, a pharmacist and an assisted suicide advocacy organization. Federal District Court Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland, Oregon, imposed the Ashcroft sentence pending prompt resolution of the case in his court. The National and Oregon Right to Life argues that Ashcroft's decision was fully justified because the federal government can choose to protect all human life through its laws even if the State of Oregon chose not to. “Just because Oregon allows its doctors to prescribe lethal overdoses to patients does not mean the federal government must accept that this is a legitimate medical use of the drugs,” said James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for National Right to Life Committee. "Oregon's tail does not wag the federal dog. The United States government can protect all human lives even if Oregon turns its back on some of them." The report also argues that Ashcroft's decision avoids constitutional problems by refusing to discriminate against terminally ill federal drug enforcement officials..