Assisted Suicide in Oregon: The Third Year
Oregon's "Death with Dignity Act," permitting physician-assisted suicide,
went into effect in 1997. Under the law, the Oregon Health Division (OHD) is required to
collect information and publish a yearly statistical report. [ORS 127.865 §3.11] Three
official reports have now been published.
The third official report released on 2/21/01 indicates that:
- 27 patients were reported to have died from physician assisted suicide in 2000.
- All information in the report comes from physician reports, telephone interviews with the prescribing physicians and death certificates.
- Physicians were present at only 52% of the reported deaths.
- Physicians reported that patient concern about becoming a burden has increased during the three years in which physician assisted suicide has been legally practiced.
- Since physicians do not need to be present when a patient dies from assisted suicide, information on what happened when the patient took the lethal drugs is not available for some reported cases.
- Only 5 patients (19%) were referred for psychological evaluation.
[ Note: Such evaluations need not be done in person. According to the Medford Mail Tribune (6/26/00), the evaluation of one patient who died of assisted suicide under the Oregon law consisted of a form that was sent to her in the mail. The psychologist who did the evaluation simply mailed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory to the patient who filled out the questionnaire with the help of her children.]
......
There is no way to know for certain how many or under what circumstances patients have died from physician-assisted suicide in Oregon:
- The law contains no penalties for doctors who do not report prescribing lethal doses
for the purpose of suicide.
- The Oregon Health Division has no regulatory authority or resources to ensure compliance
with reporting requirements. [American Medical News, 9/7/98]
- The Oregon Health Division has acknowledged that it "cannot detect or collect data on issues of noncompliance with any accuracy" [First Year Report, p. 9]
- According to the Oregon Health Division, it must assume "that physicians were their usual careful and accurate selves" when providing information. [OHD, CD Summary 3/16/99, p. 2]
- Since physicians have only acknowledged being present in 52% of reported cases, they cannot know whether complications took place after the patient took the lethal drugs. [Third Year Report, p. 8]
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OHD Sources:
Oregon's Death
with Dignity Act: The First Year Experience
Official report on the first year of Oregon's assisted suicide law.
Oregon's Death with
Dignity Act: The Second Year Experience
Official report on the second year of Oregon's assisted suicide law.
Oregon's Death with
Dignity Act: The Third Year Experience
Official report on the third year of Oregon's assisted suicide law.
OHD CD Summary, 3/16/99
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