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and Meetings < Return To Hearing Testimony of  Ms. Rita Marker
May 25, 2006   Testimony to the Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Committee on the
Judiciary United States Senate  May 25, 2006  Rita L. Marker,
J.D. Executive Director International Task Force on Euthanasia
and Assisted Suicide  Chairman Brownback, Senator Feingold, and
Honorable Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me
to testify before you today on this most urgent topic. This is
an important moment historically in the debate about suicide and
assisted suicide. In 1994, Oregon transformed the crime of
assisted suicide into a medical treatment when it passed the
Oregon Death with Dignity Act (ODWDA). Since it went into effect
in 1997, that law and experience related to it have been widely
misunderstood.  Gonzales v. Oregon and the "Ashcroft Directive":
Myths and Reality On November 6, 2001, Attorney General John
Ashcroft issued an inte