Oregon Ping
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Posted on 03/15/2005 4:11:04 PM PST by CHARLITE
Thirty-seven Oregonians died by doctor-assisted suicide last year, a slight decrease from 42 the year before, according to a new state report.
During the seven-year history of Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, assisted-suicide has accounted for 208 deaths -- roughly one in 1,000 deaths in the state.
In 2004, 40 doctors wrote a total of 60 prescriptions for lethal doses of barbiturates. The prescription total fell from 68 the year before -- the first decrease in prescriptions since doctor-assisted suicide became legal in Oregon.
The numbers released March 10 by the Oregon Department of Human Services, are unremarkable in light of previous annual reports. But they are unlikely to defuse one of the most passionately debated issues in American medicine.
They also highlight the stakes for both sides in the Bush administration's legal challenge to the Oregon law. That case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed last month to review a federal appeals court's ruling in Oregon's favor.
The Bush administration argues that doctors who assist suicides under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act can be prosecuted for violating federal anti-drug laws. The Roman Catholic Church has also opposed the Oregon law.
Of the 60 Oregonians who received a prescription for a lethal dose of medication last year, 35 died after taking the drug. Two other patients died last year after taking a drug prescribed for them the year before. Of the 25 recipients who did not ingest the medication, 13 died from their illnesses. The other 12 remained alive on Dec. 31, 2004.
The seven-year total of 208 cases remains lower than proponents expected and opponents feared in 1997 when Oregon became the only state to legalize doctor-assisted suicide.
Under the Death With Dignity Act, it is legal for a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who requests it orally and in writing, with two witnesses. Another doctor must confirm the patient has a life expectancy of less than six months. By law, the patient must swallow the drug; it cannot be administered by a doctor.
The state report is based on information filed by participating doctors and pharmacies, death certificates and follow-up interviews with the doctors.
A recent case of failed doctor-assisted suicide in an Estacada, Ore., man highlights the controversy over the Oregon law. The man, a 42-year-old cancer patient, took a supposedly lethal dose Jan. 30 but woke up nearly three days later and died of natural causes Feb. 15. Because that case occurred this year, it is not in the 2004 annual report.
The names of these doctors need to be published widely so that those of us who do not care to seek treatment from a "killer doc" can go elsewhere.
Comport with this:
Two other patients died last year after taking a drug prescribed for them the year before.
The drugs were prescribed a year before, yet the life expectancy must be less than six months.
Just shows the folly of attempting to play God.
In 2003, suicide was the second leading cause of death among Oregonians aged 10 to 24.
Oregon man arrested in alleged web suicide plot-- Associated Press Saturday, February 12, 2005;
GRANTS PASS, Ore. , Feb. 11 -- A man used an Internet chat room to try to set up a mass suicide on Valentine's Day involving more than two dozen women across the United States and Canada, authorities said Friday.http://www.dhs.state.or.us/publichealth/chs/suicide/pr_sui.cfm
According to the report, Oregon's suicide rate has climbed over the past several decades. For nine of the past ten years, Oregon's suicide rate has exceeded the nation's by at least 25 percent; in 1994 the state's rate was 42 percent higher than the national rate.
It isn't stated, but perhaps they died in January.
Oregon Ping
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