SALEM, Oregon, March 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It is the ninth year of legal physician assisted suicide (PAS) in Oregon and the state has released its annual report on patients whose lives were ended by legal assisted suicide. This year, euthanasia opponents are pointing to the more ambiguous language in this year’s report saying that the Department of Human Services yielded to pressure by euthanasia activists to cloud the debate.
Under the Death with Dignity Act (DWDA), patients can obtain a prescription for lethal doses of self-administered medications. 65 such prescriptions were given in the last year, written by 40 different doctors. 35 patients took the drugs meant to end their lives and 11 patients used prescriptions made out in previous years, giving the total number of suicides under the DWDA as 46 during 2006, eight more than in 2005.
Unlike reports from previous years, the 2006 annual report uses the phrase, “those patients who participated in the Act” to avoid using the more direct term “physician assisted suicide”.
Eighth Annual Oregon Assisted Suicide Report Shorter with More Ambiguous Language
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The nation's organ-transplant network is preparing a major change in how it rations scarce kidneys that would favor young patients over old in an effort to wring more life out of donated organs.
Today, a donated kidney generally goes to the person who has been waiting longest in the region in which it becomes available, with exceptions made for certain medical factors. A kidney from a 25-year-old donor could be transplanted into a 75-year-old, who is likely to die years before the kidney would have stopped working.
More Kidneys For Transplants May Go to Young
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