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A recent Supreme Court decision that upholds Oregon’s landmark law permitting doctor-assisted suicides does not end the nationwide ethical and legal debate on such suicides.

The Court did not deal with the constitutionality of the state law. But in a 6-3 decision announced January 17, the justices sided with the state and against the authority of the U.S. attorney general, who had sought to prevent doctors from prescribing life-ending drugs for terminally ill patients.

Republicans control both chambers of Congress and likely could muster enough votes to block the Oregon law that allows physician-assisted suicide. But an apparent about-face by an Oregon senator could alter the political landscape in the Senate.

After winning a 6-3 Supreme Court decision, supporters of the Oregon law gained a second, unexpected victory: the grudging support of Republican senator Gordon Smith.