Voters in Oregon Soundly Endorse Assisted Suicide

Oregon voters cleared the way Tuesday for a landmark statute on doctor-assisted suicide, resoundingly rejecting a repeal attempt and permitting doctors for the first time to prescribe a fatal dose of barbiturates to terminally ill patients.

But in Washington state, voters appeared to be rejecting a far-reaching handgun licensing measure that would have required all handgun owners to pass a gun safety course and obtain a license. The National Rifle Assn. launched an all-out assault on the measure, which also would have required trigger-locking safety devices on handguns.

Houston voters, meanwhile rejected a bid to end the city’s affirmative action program, with 54% voting to maintain preferences on city contracts to female- and minority-owned firms. With about 97% of the ballots counted, 46% were voting in favor of the affirmative action ban modeled on California’s Proposition 209.

The three measures were the most widely watched among more than 40 state ballot initiatives that highlighted election campaigns in an otherwise lackluster season; Washington voters also were decisively rejecting a measure to authorize medical use of marijuana and other drugs, including heroin and LSD.

In Portland, backers of physician-assisted suicide cheered wildly as early returns showed 60% of the voters rejecting an attempt to repeal the controversial statute, originally adopted in 1994 but blocked from taking effect by a court challenge.

A federal appeals court ruling Monday lifting the injunction appeared to remove the last hurdle to implementation of the law, which would allow doctors to prescribe a fatal dose of barbiturates to patients found by two doctors to have less than six months to live.

“Basically, the measure is in effect now,” said Eli Stutsman, manager of the campaign to block the repeal effort and uphold the law. “We know that two of three Oregonians want this option. I would assume that whatever percentage of those Oregonians are dying will get some immediate comfort from this.”

Barbara Oskamp, a 66-year-old retiree from West Linn, Ore., who is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor, joined backers of the measure at a victory celebration Tuesday night.

“I feel like I could leap up in the air and hit the ceiling,” Oskamp said. “I know it’s only a small percentage of patients that reach a point where the pain is so bad that it can’t be relieved. I hope I’m not one of them, but knowing that I have an option, I have a choice to do something to end the pain sooner, just gives me a wonderful feeling of relief.”

Leaders of the campaign to repeal the statute, the only one of its kind in the world, complained that it will place pressure on sick patients without financial resources to take a quick way out. They say doctors cannot reliably predict when a person has only six months to live, and warn that its focus on oral dosages will lead to many patients taking hours to die, perhaps uncomfortably.

The Catholic Church and the National Right to Life Committee led the massive campaign to repeal the statute and raised more than $3.5 million, far more than the assisted-suicide backers.

“What bothers me the most is that the people of Oregon were misled to believe that this was a vote on personal autonomy. In reality, this may affect every American family,” said Carrie Gordon, spokeswoman for the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, which supported the move to repeal the measure.

“It makes this legal for the first time in the world, and that changes the climate of health care,” Gordon said. “It dismantles 2,500 years of medical tradition, and I just have to ask myself, ‘Were we wrong for 2,500 years?’ It cheapens medical care at a time when we have the best pain management and the best treatment in the history of the world.”

The Netherlands is the only other place in the world where doctor-assisted suicide is practiced openly and legally, and even there, euthanasia is not legal, but doctors are permitted to assist dying patients under certain recognized guidelines. An Australian statute permitting assisted suicide was overturned, and the courts in Colombia have indicated they will not prosecute in most such cases.

But only Oregon has placed such a statute on the books, and proponents and opponents alike predicted it would lead to the adoption of similar measures in other states.

However, it appears likely that opponents will renew their court challenge, which failed earlier on procedural grounds, largely because the statute had not yet taken effect. Removal of the court injunction and failure of the appeal could give potential plaintiffs the standing they need to challenge the measure in court, said James Bopp Jr., attorney for the National Right to Life Committee who filed the earlier challenge.

“We will certainly consider all available legal options,” Bopp said.

The repeal effort drew the highest voter turnout in Oregon since 1963, officials said.

Handgun Measure

In Washington state, voters were rejecting an initiative to require statewide licensing and trigger-lock safety devices on handguns, with 69% in early returns voting against the measure.

Although a growing number of states are beginning to look at the issue of handgun licensing--13 have some procedure in place--the Washington measure would have taken the unprecedented step of requiring licensing and safety training for more than 600,000 citizens who already own handguns.

The measure was supported by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and his family, but its small group of backers ran up against a massive attack by the NRA, which poured $2.1 million into defeating the measure.

“Initiative 676 means no safety, no self-defense and no right of privacy for Washingtonians,” NRA lobbyist Tanya K. Metaksa said during a tour of the state in October. Actor and NRA officer Charlton Heston also made an appearance in Washington against the measure, but analysts said it was the widespread opposition of law enforcement--with the exception of several big-city police chiefs--that was likely to prove more persuasive in defeating the initiative.

Law enforcement officials complained it would be difficult to monitor handguns already in the home, and even more difficult to confiscate guns from unlicensed owners. Proponents said a gun safety course and trigger locks on all handguns would make ownership safer and prevent deaths of children injured by unlocked guns in the home.

“We see licensing as being the significant area on the national level of where the debate on gun control is moving, and Washington state is really leading the charge with a local group taking on the NRA,” said Luis Tolley of the Los Angeles-based Handgun Control, which supported the Washington initiative.

He said handgun licensing might find easier passage in California because proponents there have the backing of state police chiefs and two prospective gubernatorial candidates. Most California proposals do not include a retroactive licensing requirement for existing handgun owners.

Affirmative Action

In Houston, voters elected to maintain the city’s affirmative action policy after a strong campaign in favor of retaining the practice by outgoing Mayor Bob Lanier, one of the city’s most popular politicians.

Houston’s voluntary affirmative action program, adopted in 1985 and strengthened under Lanier in 1995, helps female- and minority-owned businesses win city contracts. Last year, about 20% of $1 billion in city business went to minorities, compared to just 5% before the plan was enacted.

The 72-year-old Lanier, a white millionaire businessman, warned that returning to the days “when guys like me got all the business” will hurt the economy of an increasingly diverse city striving to become an international hub.

Times researcher Lianne Hart in Houston contributed to this story.

* WHITMAN WINS NEW JERSEY: GOP moderate squeaks by unheralded Democrat to recapture governorship. A18

* LOCAL ELECTIONS: Results on B1, B3