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NEWS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2005
6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FLU
Scientists construct virus for research
ATLANTA — It sounds like a sci-fi thriller. For the first time, scientists have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed millions of people in 1918.
BY MIKE STOBBE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Why? To help them understand how to better bend off a future global epidemic from the bird flu spreading in Southeast Asia.
Researchers believe their work offers proof the 1918 flu originated in birds and provides insights into how it attacked and multiplied in humans. On top of that, this marks the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has ever been reconstructed.
The scientists involved in the project contend there's no real risk to public safety. The vials of this frightening germ — about 10 of them — are locked away at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said Terrence Tumpey, the CDC research scientist who constructed the virus.
"There isn't much input from the public. I think there should be," said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics.
However, at least one ethicist thinks there should be a broader public discussion before scientists take such bold steps.
Like the 1918 virus, the current avian flu in Southeast Asia occurs naturally in birds. In 1918, the virus mutated, infected people and then spread among them. So far, the current Asian virus has infected and killed at least 65 people but has rarely spread person-to-person.
SUPREME COURT
Oregon goes to battle over right to die
BY GINA HOLLAND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — New Chief Justice John Roberts stepped forward Wednesday as an aggressive defender of federal authority to block doctor-assisted suicide, as the Supreme Court clashed over an Oregon law that lets doctors help terminally ill patients end their lives.
The justices will decide if the federal government, not states, has the final say on the life-or-death issue.
It was a wrenching debate for a court touched personally by illness. Roberts replaced William H. Rehnquist, who died a month ago after battling cancer for nearly a year.
Three justices have had cancer and a fourth has a spouse who counsels children with untreatable cancer.
The outcome is hard to predict, in part because of the uncertain status of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who seemed ready to support Oregon's law.
Her replacement may be confirmed before the ruling is handed down, possibly months from now.
Roberts repeatedly raised concerns that a single exception for Oregon would allow other states to create a patchwork of rules.
"If one state can say it's legal for doctors to prescribe morphine to make people feel better, or to prescribe steroids for bodybuilding, doesn't that undermine the uniformity of the federal law and make enforcement impossible?" he asked.
The Supreme Court eight years ago concluded that the
If this court makes clear that state law can overtake the federal regime, I think it at least creates the potential for there to be a lot of holes in the regime."
"T
Charles Dharapak/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ruth Gallaid from Eugene, Ore., who supports physician assisted suicide, protests in front of the Supreme Court Wednesday in Washington. The Supreme Court revisited the emotionally charged issue of physician-assisted suicide in a test of the federal government's power to block doctors from helping terminally ill patients and end their lives.
Paul Clement Solicitor General
dying had no constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide. O'Connor provided a key fifth vote in that decision, which left room for state-by-state experimentation.
The new case is a turf battle of sorts, started by former Attorney General John Ashcroft, a favorite among the president's conservative religious supporters.
Hastening someone's death is an improper use of medication and violates federal drug laws, Ashcroft reasoned in 2001, an opposite conclusion from the one reached by Attorney General Janet Reno in the Clinton administration.
Oregon won a lawsuit in a lower court over its voter-approved law, which took effect in 1997 and has been used by 208 people.
David Souter, in an emotional moment, said that it's one thing for the government to ban date rape drugs and harmful
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has had colon cancer, talked about medicines that make a sick person's final moments more comfortable.
The Supreme Court appeared sharply divided in hearing the Bush administration's appeal.
products but "that seems to me worlds away from what we're talking about here."
On the other side, Roberts and Antonin Scalia appeared skeptical of Oregon's claims that states have the sole authority to regulate the practice of medicine.
Roberts, 50, was presiding over his first major oral argument and thrust himself in the middle of the debate.
Over and over he raised concerns that states could undermine federal regulation of addictive drugs.
He interrupted Oregon Senior Assistant Attorney General Robert Atkinson in his first minute, then asked more than a dozen more tough questions.
Roberts said the federal government has the authority to determine what is a legitimate medical purpose and "it suggests that the attorney general
has the authority to interpret that phrase" to declare that assisted suicide is not legitimate. Roberts asked three questions of the Bush administration lawyer, noting that Congress passed one drug law only after "lax state treatment of opium."
"I was wondering if the new chief would hold back and wouldn't ruffle other people's feathers. It appears clear he's not waiting for anything or anyone," said Neil Siegel, a law professor at Duke University and a former Supreme Court clerk.
The two justices who seemed most conflicted were Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer. Breyer's wife counsels young cancer patients.
Besides Ginsburg, the justices who have had cancer are O'Connor and John Paul Stevens.
"For me, the case turns on the statute. And it's a hard case."
Kennedy told the Bush administration's lawyer, and later he asked about the "serious consequences" of curbing federal government authority in regulating drugs.
Solicitor General Paul Clement said, "If this court makes clear that state law can overtake the federal regime, I think it at least creates the potential for there to be a lot of holes in the regime."
Dozens of spectators gathered outside the court, waving signs supporting and opposing the Oregon law. "My Life, My Death, My Choice," read one sign.
"Oregon Law Protects Doctors — Not Patients," said another.
Oregon is the only state with an assisted suicide law, but other states may pass their own if the court rules in the state's favor.
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