Posted on 03/03/2009 5:39:08 PM PST by MovementConservative
Sixty Oregonians ended their lives by taking a lethal drug dose prescribed under the Death With Dignity Act, state officials reported Tuesday.
That's the highest annual total in the 11-year history of the law, 11 more than in 2007. Deaths from a legal drug prescribed under the Death With Dignity Act now account for 2 of 1,000 deaths in Oregon.
In all, 401 terminally ill Oregonians have died this way since Oregon became the only state to make doctor-assisted suicide legal in 1997.
Oregon is about to lose its exclusive status as the only state where it is legal for a doctor, on request, to prescribe a drug intended to end the patient's life. An almost identical law takes effect in Washington Thursday.
As in previous years, most Oregonians who died this way last year had cancer and were older than 70, white and highly educated (to see the full report, go to www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/index.shtml). All but one was enrolled in hospice care, and all but two had some form of health insurance. All died at home, in an assisted-living center or a foster-care home.
"The number of deaths was higher in 2008, but the rest of the patterns are essentially the same," said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, a medical epidemiologist with the Department of Human Services, who compiled the latest report.
The most common reasons given by patients for requesting a lethal prescription under the law last year, as reported by their doctors, were loss of autonomy, inability to engage in enjoyable activities and loss of dignity and control over bodily functions.
While the number of deaths rose last year, the number of prescriptions written under the Death With Dignity Act stayed essentially the same -- 88, compared with 85 the year before. Some patients who request and receive a lethal prescription do not use it, because they reconsider, lose their capacity to swallow the drug, or die of their underlying disease.
Under the Oregon law, a doctor can legally prescribe a lethal drug dose to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who requests it orally and in writing. Two oral requests must be made at least 15 days apart. A second doctor must attest that the patient is expected to die within six months. The patient must swallow the lethal drug without assistance.
The year-to-year trend has shown a gradual rise in use of the Oregon law. That included eight years when the number of deaths increased, two when it declined slightly and one when it stayed the same, compared with the preceding year.
-- Don Colburn: 503-294-5124; doncolburn@news.oregonian.com
Free people being pro-choice
That's why I don't classify this under "pro-life" in spite of the attempts of a fringe core here who wants to define the GOP and conservatism as wanting to interfere in the free will of the populace. These people had a say in what they did and if I think it's a bad choice, it's still their choice to do this to themselves.
They are free people being free to do as they wish.
I tend to agree. However, the media with the help of some fringe types, have successfully hung this and marijuana around our necks as being the intrusive party who is interested in every aspect of adults lives. I wish those people who takes things too far would just form their own party and get away from staining the GOP. Kinda like the Pacific Green party for the extreme enviro-whackos.
But the next door neighbor will!
Once you create a pathway for murder to occur, it will be taken.
Irrespective of the merits of "dignity", Fur Shur Oregon's voters are the stupidest people in North America.
Oregon and Florida = death states
You should have helped your mother adhere to the model. Your failure to do so is no excuse for supporting a system of state sanctioned murder.
Diabetics and the entire human race would die without carbohydrates.
Did you mean high glycemic carbs like candy, sodas, breads, rice, and pasta?
Washington State just passed an almost identical law by a vote of the people. As a former GOP precinct chair from Washington I wish I was still up there and would have voted/campaigned for it. Good on them!
how f**king dare you blame me or my mother. Apparently you have no connections to someone that has sever diabetes. Even with your suggestions, some cases are not handle so easly.
So shut the hell up when you have no idea.
We fight back.
Your liver will convert protein to all the carbs you need. As a practical matter it’s almost impossible to totally avoid carbs, but by making that a goal you will bring them down to a point that you can survive the condition.
If you think that we needed a law to make this happen, you are dead wrong. Doctors routinely give prescriptions or even self administered IVs to terminally ill patienst, especially seniors. Sometimes they do it without permission from the patient, like they tried to do to my mother.
This law is not for the benefit of the patient. It is to reduce the burden on the health system.
You have not reached the point that my mother was at. She fought this problem for years, her kidneys failed and developed gangrene in her legs. She suffered immensely and it was her wish to be rid of the pain when there was no hope for survival.
So don’t speak of your wishes until you’ve walked a mile in my mother’s shoes. See how you handle the pain when you’ve fought this for some 30-40 years....you inconsiderate b****
“This law is not for the benefit of the patient”
Right. The law is to relieve doctors of criminality in providing the means to the end. (and probably the patients in settling estates.)
That's your opinion. Maybe the people who are terminal and choosing this are telling the truth when they say they can no longer engage in enjoyable activities and are tired of not being able to stop sh*tting themselves.
Give me a break ~ I pay pretty serious income taxes so that every diabetic in the country with kidney problems can have FREE dialysis.
Modern science has arrived and it's providing real answers. I am working hard to insure that I do not develop all the problems that can occur.
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