Finally some bioethics news that has nothing whatsoever to do with Hwang Woo-suk. New York Times’ coverage of the decision by the US Supreme Court gives some sense of what was at stake in the decision, a rebuke to Ashcroft’s absurd reaching in attempting to trump states’ rights by employing a DEA anti-drug strategy to invalidate the Oregon measure. A more focused explanation is given by Kennedy himself, focused almost entirely on smiting the preposterous excess Ashcroft used in going after the Oregon measure.
The scope immediate impact for this decision is not obvious apart of course from the effect on Oregon. Nor is it clear how this decision interacts with SCOTUS’ reversal several years ago of decisions involving physician-assisted suicide issued by the 2nd and 9th Circuit Courts of Appeals. We’ll have to dredge up some lawyer to blog about that. Certainly there are plenty of bioethics experts ready to talk about the decision.
No surprise, the strategy of conservatives is beginning to gel, a shift to calls for concerted federal action by the experts on persistent vegetative state who rule the House of Representatives. The blue states meanwhile are likely to move toward more Oregonian positions on PAS.
[update: Womens’ Bioethics Blog discusses this stuff today]