Initiatives Oregon

The Oregon Supreme Court on Friday restored five voter initiative measures to the Nov. 6 ballot, reversing a ruling that had disqualified them on a technicality. The state high court announced its unanimous decision after hearing arguments on the appeal. It had no further comment. One of the issues would allow tax credits for parents who send their children to parochial schools.

In the most aggressive move yet to lift the veil of secrecy that has shrouded many U.S. adoptions since the 1940s, Oregon voters today will consider a ballot initiative that would open original birth certificates to all adult adoptees. The initiative would make Oregon one of only three states that does not offer a guarantee of secrecy to birth mothers who request it.

In the renewed debate over abortion, practically everybody has had a say--judges, candidates, clerics, governors and certainly the battle-hardened professionals. Now the stage is being set to hear straight from the voters themselves. State election officials are verifying petition signatures on a November election initiative that would seek to ban abortions in Oregon, except for women who are victims of rape or incest, or those put at life-threatening risk by pregnancy.

Oregon became the first state Tuesday where doctor-assisted suicide for dying persons is legal, as the Supreme Court rejected the final appeals of those who have until now blocked the state's voter initiative from taking effect. "It is clear . . . the Supreme Court is standing behind its own decision to support full and robust debate in the 50 states," said Portland attorney Eli Stutsman, a leading advocate of the 1994 law.

Hard by the Columbia River 40 miles northwest of Portland stands the 500-foot Trojan Nuclear Plant cooling tower, a vapor-belching monument to the Nuclear Age. Come Election Day, anti-nuclear activists hope to turn it into a relic. Trojan opponents--worried about safety and the rising costs of running the aging plant--are backing two initiatives on the Oregon ballot this November to shut the reactor right after the election.

In the most aggressive move yet to lift the veil of secrecy that has shrouded many U.S. adoptions since the 1940s, Oregon voters today will consider a ballot initiative that would open original birth certificates to all adult adoptees. The initiative would make Oregon one of only three states that does not offer a guarantee of secrecy to birth mothers who request it.

Episcopal bishops of Oregon denounced a ballot proposal that calls homosexuality "wrong, unnatural and perverse" and would overturn laws in several localities barring discrimination against homosexuals. Bishops Robert Ladehoff and Rustin Kimsey issued a pastoral letter saying the proposal, known as Measure 9, would create "an environment of suspicion and fear." The issue is on the statewide ballot Nov. 3.

Five statewide voter initiatives aren't eligible to be on the Nov. 6 Oregon ballot, Marion County Circuit Judge Richard Barber ruled. Barber said the proposals no longer qualify for the ballot because they won't be accompanied by financial impact statements as required by state law.

Oregon's pioneering topsy-turvy debate over doctor-assisted suicide is now underway . . . again. When voters narrowly passed a referendum approving the practice in 1994, this frontier-spirited state of 3.2 million became the first to sanction the controversial practice. But opponents rallied, local courts blocked the proposed law and the Oregon Medical Assn. shed its neutrality and came out against the Death with Dignity measure, citing "flaws" highlighted by emerging medical research.

A far-reaching anti-gay ballot initiative in Oregon that attracted nationwide attention appeared headed for defeat Tuesday, while a milder Colorado measure barring the adoption of gay-rights legislation in that state was winning with most of the vote counted. The measures have been closely watched as flash points in the battle over gay rights, with both sides predicting that passage of either initiative would prompt similar efforts elsewhere.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court finally cleared the way Tuesday for Oregon's pioneering 1994 law allowing physician-assisted suicide, it is not likely that any patient will get such aid in dying in the three weeks before voters address the issue yet again in a hotly debated November ballot measure. It may take weeks for the necessary legal documents lifting the existing injunction to wend their way through the various federal and local courts.

Oregon's pioneering topsy-turvy debate over doctor-assisted suicide is now underway . . . again. When voters narrowly passed a referendum approving the practice in 1994, this frontier-spirited state of 3.2 million became the first to sanction the controversial practice. But opponents rallied, local courts blocked the proposed law and the Oregon Medical Assn. shed its neutrality and came out against the Death with Dignity measure, citing "flaws" highlighted by emerging medical research.

The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will decide whether Americans who are terminally ill have a right to get help from their doctors and family members to end their lives. The so-called right-to-die question, to be argued early next year, is probably the most far-reaching constitutional issue to come before the court since abortion.

The Pacific Northwest, which has spawned consumer revolutions from personal computers to gourmet coffee, has become home to the latest upheaval in individual rights: a terminally ill person's right to "hasten death" with a fatal dose of medication. While maverick Michigan pathologist Jack Kevorkian has made headlines for helping dozens of patients die, a small group of activists in Washington and Oregon has moved quietly--and, so far, successfully--to make the practice legal.

A far-reaching anti-gay ballot initiative in Oregon that attracted nationwide attention appeared headed for defeat Tuesday, while a milder Colorado measure barring the adoption of gay-rights legislation in that state was winning with most of the vote counted. The measures have been closely watched as flash points in the battle over gay rights, with both sides predicting that passage of either initiative would prompt similar efforts elsewhere.

Hard by the Columbia River 40 miles northwest of Portland stands the 500-foot Trojan Nuclear Plant cooling tower, a vapor-belching monument to the Nuclear Age. Come Election Day, anti-nuclear activists hope to turn it into a relic. Trojan opponents--worried about safety and the rising costs of running the aging plant--are backing two initiatives on the Oregon ballot this November to shut the reactor right after the election.

The Pacific Northwest, which has spawned consumer revolutions from personal computers to gourmet coffee, has become home to the latest upheaval in individual rights: a terminally ill person's right to "hasten death" with a fatal dose of medication. While maverick Michigan pathologist Jack Kevorkian has made headlines for helping dozens of patients die, a small group of activists in Washington and Oregon has moved quietly--and, so far, successfully--to make the practice legal.

The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will decide whether Americans who are terminally ill have a right to get help from their doctors and family members to end their lives. The so-called right-to-die question, to be argued early next year, is probably the most far-reaching constitutional issue to come before the court since abortion.

On the first page of the Oregon voters' pamphlet is a remarkable disclaimer that the usually staid ballot guide contains "language that citizens and parents may find objectionable"--one more sign that this isn't an ordinary political season here. This is the year of Measure 9, an unprecedented and intensely publicized ballot initiative that would write into the Oregon constitution a moral condemnation of homosexuality and require state and local government agencies to discourage it.

Episcopal bishops of Oregon denounced a ballot proposal that calls homosexuality "wrong, unnatural and perverse" and would overturn laws in several localities barring discrimination against homosexuals. Bishops Robert Ladehoff and Rustin Kimsey issued a pastoral letter saying the proposal, known as Measure 9, would create "an environment of suspicion and fear." The issue is on the statewide ballot Nov. 3.