The most important legislation dealing with the so-called euthanasia issue last year was the Hyde-Oberstar bill. It was approved by the House Judiciary Committee but failed to come up for a vote on the floor. A similar Senate bill suffered the same fate.

The House version, sponsored by Reps. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and James Oberstar (D-Minn.), amends the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act to curb physician-assisted suicides. The bill was opposed by some medical and hospice groups because it appeared that it restricted the use of palliative or pain-reducing drugs.

Although he says that this palliative-care issue is a “red herring,” Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Catholic Conference/National Conference of Catholic Bishops said he believes the proposed legislation will be redrafted in such a way to accommodate most reasonable concerns. The conference is one of the organizations which support the legislation.

The conference's general secretary, Msgr. Dennis Schnurr, has said, “The proposed act provides a focused and reasonable vehicle for reaffirming federal obligations to protect the vulnerable from lethal drugs.

“It affirms that assisting a patient's suicide is not one of the legitimate medical purposes for which controlled substances are entrusted to physicians by the federal government,” he said