c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith rarely shies from action when public policy collides with his private pain. But if Senate colleagues try again to thwart his state’s assisted-suicide law, this time Smith wants no part of it.

The issue has become too raw and too personal, said Smith. His eldest son, Garrett, committed suicide in September 2003 after battling clinical depression for several years. And although Smith supported a previous effort to block the Oregon law, he won’t again.

“There comes a time when you have to simply say, it is over,” said Smith, a Republican. “I hope Oregonians understand that for me the issue of suicide has become extremely personally painful. And I really don’t have much more to say about it.”

Smith’s change of course could lead to an ironic outcome: It effectively would shield the Oregon law from further action by Congress, allowing the suicide Smith, a Mormon, opposes on moral grounds. His inaction also carries political risk; religious conservatives or his ideological opponents in Congress may sense that he has lost resolve.

“This is going to put him in a very difficult spot,” said John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron who studies the intersection of politics and moral values.

The Supreme Court cleared the Oregon law on Jan. 17, ruling that former Attorney General John Ashcroft exceeded his authority when he declared that assisted suicide was not a “legitimate medical purpose” of federally controlled painkillers.

Smith issued a three-sentence statement then, urging Congress to accept the court’s decision as the last word on the Oregon law. At the time, Congress was in recess, and Smith was in Arizona attending a family retreat. He could not be reached to elaborate on his statement.

In a subsequent telephone interview, Smith said he hadn’t changed his opinion of assisted suicide; he still opposes the practice on moral grounds.

But the emotions that once drove the Republican senator to fight for his convictions now have caused him to turn inward.

“I’m not going to be making any efforts to lead in a way contrary to the ruling of the court or the wishes of my constituency,” Smith said. “It’s not a subject I’m comfortable with anymore, for very personal reasons.”

The circumstances leading to Garrett Smith’s death were of a different nature than those contemplated by the Oregon law.

Garrett Smith suffered from depression for several years, and he had received medical and psychological treatment before taking his own life a day before his 22nd birthday.

The Oregon law was written in 1994 for patients diagnosed with less than six months to live. The law requires a psychological review if a doctor thinks a patient who is requesting a lethal prescription is depressed.

But in Gordon Smith’s view, the purpose and terms of the Oregon law are beside the point. Smith said he regards suicide as the wrong solution to any human ailment, regardless of what the law allows.

“I have always and still believe that suicide is not a remedy for psychological or physical pain,” Smith said. “But I’m in the minority on that.”

Despite his personal views, Smith added, he feels compelled to abide by the court’s ruling.

“I respect our legal processes and believe in obedience to law,” he said. “This law is now fully tested and constitutional. Case closed.”

While Smith’s personal pain undoubtedly is real, his reversal is an unusual response for a politician, said Green, the Akron professor. More often, politicians use personal tragedy as inspiration to fight harder for favored causes.

Former Sen. Bob Dole, who was injured in World War II, became an advocate for the physically disabled. The late Sen. Paul Wellstone was inspired by his brother’s struggle with schizophrenia to propose the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act, requiring insurers to treat mental and physical ailments equally.

And previously, Smith also used his pain in action. He gave a floor speech in July 2004 recounting Garrett’s struggle, rallying support for a measure to help prevent youth suicide. And he invoked Garrett’s memory last year as he battled the Bush White House and fellow Republicans over their attempts to cut benefits to Medicaid recipients.

Bill Lunch, a political science professor at Oregon State University, said the move likely will help Smith in Oregon because most voters support the Oregon law. Smith does risk losing the enthusiastic support of religious conservatives in Oregon, he said. But because they have no realistic alternative, Smith likely will lose few votes.

“It’s a very simple political calculus,” Lunch said.

Less clear is how the move will play with Smith’s Senate colleagues.

Lunch said he thinks that most other senators will feel sympathy for Smith. But Green said that in an age of cutthroat politics in Washington, some might see a sign of weakness.

“It has become a very competitive and polarized place,” he said, “and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if people tried to take advantage of this situation.”

Some opponents of the Oregon law already have expressed frustration with Smith, saying his change of position could jeopardize a prime opportunity to advance an agenda opposing abortion and assisted suicide.

Because the Supreme Court ruling addressed a narrow question of administrative authority, it practically invites a legislative remedy that would close any questions about federal authority over use of painkillers, they said.

“Senator Smith would do well to act as we did and read the decision before commenting on it,” said Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “As with other `statutory construction’ rulings, this decision leaves Congress itself free to decide what its laws mean.”

Opponents nearly succeeded in blocking the law six years ago _ thanks largely to Smith’s support, delivered in emotional testimony.

Then, social conservatives drafted a bill called the Pain Relief Promotion Act that would have prohibited doctors from prescribing lethal doses of federally controlled painkillers for terminally ill patients.

Smith announced his support for the bill as a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2000. As Smith recalled his service as a Mormon bishop and hospital volunteer, he halted to compose himself.

“I was thinking of human faces of people that I know who have lain at death’s door,” Smith told the committee. “And frankly, those are very heart-rending emotions and circumstances.”

MO/PH END RNS

(Jim Barnett writes for The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.)

Editors: To obtain photos of Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject.