DATE: Monday, June 30, 1997                 TAG: 9706300020

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Update 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: PORTLAND, ORE.                    LENGTH:   38 lines

FATE OF NATION'S ONLY LAW FOR ASSISTED SUICIDE IS STILL UNCLEAR

The nation's only law permitting the terminally ill to end their lives with a doctor's help was passed by Oregon voters in 1994. It has been bottled up in court ever since.

In Oregon, where the nation's only law allowing physician-assisted suicide is in legal limbo, there was a mixed reaction to Thursday's ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court which found the terminally ill don't have a constitutional right to end their lives.

Even as it upheld bans on assisted suicide in Washington state and New York, the court did nothing to bar states from legalizing the process. Advocates suggested the court someday may recognize such a constitutional right.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan blocked the law a few weeks after it was approved, ruling it violated the Constitution by making the terminally ill a separate class of people.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case later this year.

Even though the Oregon law is tied up in court, voters will decide in November whether to repeal the law or keep it.

The debate over this fall's vote promises to be intense and expensive. It will pit the Roman Catholic Church and other opponents against the likes of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and the Hemlock Society U.S.A., which advocates assisted suicide.

Once a doctor determines a patient has less than six months to live, the law requires a second doctor to decide whether the patient is mentally competent and not suffering from depression. KEYWORDS: ASSISTED SUICIDE LAW

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