Reading Room Document
Whether Physician-Assisted Suicide Serves a "Legitimate Medical Purpose" Under DEA Regulations
A physician's assisting in a patient's suicide, even in a manner permitted by state law, is not a "legitimate medical purpose" within the meaning of a Drug Enforcement Agency regulation, and accordingly dispensing controlled substances for this purpose violates the Controlled Substances Act, which the DEA regulation implements. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/19206/download.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit