DEATH-BY-POPULAR VOTE IN OREGON

Without a doubt, Oregon is one of the most beautiful of our nation's 50 states. Its coastal areas offer breathtaking panoramas. Its mountains and the lush agricultural valley that lies between the coastal range and the Cascades are spectacular in their own ways. Even the high desert of eastern Oregon can claim a special kind of beauty. And the Columbia River Gorge offers natural wonders in abundance.

But there is a cloud over the Beaver State in the form of voter-approved assisted suicides. It is now legal in Oregon for terminally ill patients to request a prescription for lethal pills from their doctors -- provided the would-be suicide has less than six months to live and isn't impaired in judgment by depression or other mental maladies.

As with any legal formula, Oregon's suicide law is fraught with a tangle of hard questions. The state's voters may have acted out of compassion for the suffering of some who are dying, but their decision has neglected to consider all of the moral, religious and societal conundrums that were bound to exist in the wake of a move to allow death-by-popular-vote.

While the law allows this grim reality, it can be hoped that doctors will hold to their oath to do no harm, that pharmacists will balk on solid grounds at filling death prescriptions and that the religious and moral teachers of the great state of Oregon will do their best to sway the people away from simplified decisions about dying.