ATTORNEY GENERAL HARDY MYERS APPLAUDED

OREGON DEATH WITH DIGNITY ANNOUNCES NEWS CONFERENCE ON COURTHOUSE STEPS TO FILE SUIT AGAINST FEDERAL INTRUSION INTO OREGON�S LAW

Nov. 7, 2001

Portland, OR --- Oregon Death with Dignity (ODWD) strongly supports the actions of Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers.� This afternoon, Myers is expected to file an injunction asking the federal courts to allow Oregon�s Death with Dignity law to remain in effect while the state seeks to challenge a federal ruling by Attorney General John Ashcroft.� Through his ruling, Ashcroft and the U.S. Department of Justice threaten physicians and pharmacists and strip patients of their rights.

�The people of Oregon are well represented in the case introduced by Attorney General Myers today.� The speed with which his office set forth such a thorough argument is a tribute to how important this issue is to Oregonians and to the principle of democracy,� said Scott Swenson, Executive Director of Oregon Death with Dignity.

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Oregon Death with Dignity will file its own case seeking an injunction against Attorney General Ashcroft�s intrusion into Oregon law. The ODWD case will be filed in a news conference at noon, on Thursday, November 8, on the steps of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, OR (1000 SW 3rd Avenue).� The ODWD case will introduce the physician and pharmacist plaintiffs that will challenge the federal government�s inroads into the regulation of legitimate medical practice by the State of Oregon.� Lead attorney for the case, Eli Stutsman, will brief reporters.

Oregon Death with Dignity is the only organization to successfully pass a death with dignity law anywhere in the country.� Likewise, it is the only organization to ever win a court case supportive of death with dignity.� ODWD was the lead organization defending the Oregon law between 1994 and 1997 through the federal court all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.� Eli Stutsman is the attorney who drafted the Oregon law and defended it successfully in every legal challenge.

WHAT: Oregon Death with Dignity�NEWS CONFERENCE
WHO:

Eli Stutsman, Lead Attorney
Carol Pratt, Davis Wright Tremaine, Oregon Death with Dignity Board of Directors
WHEN: NOON, November 8, 2001
WHERE: Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, 1000 SW 3rdAvenue

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About Death with Dignity

The greatest human freedom is to live, and die, according to one's own desires and beliefs. From advance directives to physician-assisted dying, death with dignity is a movement to provide options for the dying to control their own end-of-life care.

Death with Dignity National Center is the leader in this movement, successfully establishing, advancing and defending the landmark Oregon and Washington Death with Dignity Acts.

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Political Action Fund

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