Oregon Ping
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Posted on 03/04/2005 12:28:13 PM PST by aculeus
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A terminally ill cancer patient who tried to end his life with drugs prescribed under Oregon's assisted-suicide law awoke three days later, alert and talkative, his wife said.
David Prueitt, who had lung cancer, took what was believed to be a fatal dose of a barbiturate prescribed by his doctor in January. He fell into a coma within minutes, but woke up three days later, said his wife Lynda Romig Prueitt.
Prueitt's wife told The Oregonian newspaper that he asked, "Why am I not dead?"
Prueitt, 42, lived for two more weeks before dying of natural causes at his Estacada home, about 35 miles southeast of Portland.
The state Department of Human Services will turn the case over to the Board of Medical Examiners or state Board of Pharmacy to determine if the procedure or drugs were faulty, said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, assistant state epidemiologist.
Complications with doctor-assisted suicides are rare. In 2001, a patient took 37 hours to die after ingesting a lethal dose, and in 2003, a patient took 48 hours to die. Neither regained consciousness.
Since the law took effect in 1997, more than 170 people in Oregon have used it to end their lives. The law is meant for only extremely sick people - those with incurable diseases who two doctors agree have six months or less to live and are of sound mind.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that states have the right to decide whether to allow doctor-assisted suicides, but it announced last month it will review the law again following an appeal by the Bush administration.
AP-ES-03-04-05 1506EST
Murder is a legal matter. Here, in NC, I may shoot & kill anyone breaking into my home and will not be charged as, by law, it its not murder. Try the same thing in NY or MA (and many other states) and you are very likely to serve a long sentence for murder.
Under Oregon law, doctor assisted suicide is not, if the rules are followed, murder.
People used to kill their relatives when they were old and dying, witness the tribes that used to set their sick, old people out in the winter to die quickly by freezing instead of slowly by "natural" causes.
Why do we put down anials that are suffering but refuse to let a person decide for themselves when it is time to depart?
Oh, yeah, I forgot: Those were the people we used to (so judgementally) call UNCIVILIZED.
Not to mention that "under God" foolishness.
there you have it.
Living is a 'complication'.
"Since the law took effect in 1997, more than 170 people in Oregon have used it to end their lives."
Just think--if this were the State of Washington, there'd be one more Republican governor today.
Maybe there IS something to this "assisted suicide" business. Good for the Blue States!
The "under God" part doesn't bother me a bit. There's obviously some much bigger power in the universe than just the homo sapiens critters crawling around planet Earth. Different people have different beliefs about the nature of that power, some very specific and literal, others very abstract. But "God" is a good catch-all name for it (even works for Muslims, since "Allah" is just Arabic for "God"), and anybody who gets their panties in a wad over the benign, non-specific "under God" in the pledge is mentally disordered (Michael Newdow being Exhibit A).
Oregon Ping
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There is something really stupid in that sentence....
Well, of course it won't! It doesn't hamper his voters either.
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