Page:United States Reports 546.pdf/460

 546US2

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[09-04-08 12:21:03] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 546 U. S. 243 (2006)

249

Opinion of the Court

prohibit doctors from prescribing regulated drugs for use in physician-assisted suicide, notwithstanding a state law per­ mitting the procedure. As the Court has observed, “Ameri­ cans are engaged in an earnest and profound debate about the morality, legality, and practicality of physician-assisted suicide.” Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U. S. 702, 735 (1997). The dispute before us is in part a product of this political and moral debate, but its resolution requires an in­ quiry familiar to the courts: interpreting a federal statute to determine whether executive action is authorized by, or otherwise consistent with, the enactment. In 1994, Oregon became the ﬁrst State to legalize assisted suicide when voters approved a ballot measure enacting the Oregon Death With Dignity Act (ODWDA). Ore. Rev. Stat. § 127.800 et seq. (2003). ODWDA, which survived a 1997 ballot measure seeking its repeal, exempts from civil or criminal liability state-licensed physicians who, in compliance with the speciﬁc safeguards in ODWDA, dispense or pre­ scribe a lethal dose of drugs upon the request of a terminally ill patient. The drugs Oregon physicians prescribe under ODWDA are regulated under a federal statute, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA or Act). 84 Stat. 1242, as amended, 21 U. S. C. § 801 et seq. The CSA allows these particular drugs to be available only by a written prescription from a registered physician. In the ordinary course the same drugs are pre­ scribed in smaller doses for pain alleviation. A November 9, 2001, Interpretive Rule issued by the At­ torney General addresses the implementation and enforce­ ment of the CSA with respect to ODWDA. It determines that using controlled substances to assist suicide is not a legitimate medical practice and that dispensing or prescrib­ ing them for this purpose is unlawful under the CSA. The Interpretive Rule’s validity under the CSA is the issue before us.