• H. 44 does not require that family members be notified when a doctor is going to help a loved one commit suicide.

Family notification is not required, only recommended. [Sec. 5282 (6) and 5286] The patient's family doesn't need to be notified until after the patient is dead.

• H. 44 would give government health programs, managed care programs and HMOs the opportunity to approve prescriptions for suicide to cut costs.

In Oregon, Medicaid pays for assisted suicide for poor residents and health insurance plans treat assisted suicide like any other prescription. Drugs for assisted suicide are very inexpensive – far less costly than medications to make patients comfortable.

• H. 44 would give physicians the power to suggest assisted suicide to their patients.

Its supporters claim that, if H. 44 passes, physicians would not be able to suggest assisted suicide to their patients. That claim is false.

Although H. 44 states that "no person shall coerce or exert undue influence on a patient" to request drugs to commit suicide [Sec. 2312 (a) (2)], nothing in H. 44 prohibits HMOs, insurance companies, health providers, or others from suggesting assisted suicide to a patient or encouraging a patient to request a lethal prescription.

• H. 44 would permit doctors to help mentally ill or depressed patients commit suicide.

A referral for counseling is only necessary if, in the "opinion" of the attending or consulting physician, the patient requesting death "may be suffering from a mental disorder or disease causing impaired judgment." [Sec. 5284, emphasis added] "Counseling" is defined as "a consultation" between a psychiatrist, psychologist or clinical social worker and the patient. [Sec. 5280 (4)]

Even if the counselor determines that the patient has a mental disorder or disease, that patient would still be able to get help to commit suicide, as long as the counselor determines that the patient's judgment is not impaired.

According to Oregon's last official report, only 5% of patients were referred for a psychological evaluation or counseling before receiving a prescription for assisted suicide. [Oregon, DHS, Eighth Annual Report on Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, 3/9/06]

• H. 44 would allow drugs for suicide to be delivered to the patient by a third party.

Nothing in H. 44 requires the patient to obtain the drugs in person. They can be given by the pharmacy to a friend or acquaintance for delivery to the patient. [Sec. 5282 (B)(ii)]

• H. 44 does not require that requests for assisted suicide be made in person.

Under H.44, a patient must make two oral requests and one witnessed written request for assisted suicide. [Sec. 5287] Nothing requires that the two oral requests (which do not need to be witnessed) be made in person. Thus, they could be made by phone. The witnessed written request need not be done in the presence of the physician who will write the assisted-suicide prescription. Therefore, it could be mailed to the doctor, who could then prescribe the drugs for assisted suicide.

• H. 44 has no safeguards for the patient at the time the drug overdose is taken.

H. 44 covers patient-related activities only until the time the prescription for suicide is written. The lethal drugs could be stored over time, with no concern for public safety or patient protection. There are no provisions to insure that the patient is competent at the time the overdose is taken.

Testifying about Oregon's law, Dr. Katrina Hedberg, the lead author of most of Oregon's official reports, said that the state's job "is to make sure that all the steps happened up to the point the prescription is written" and the "law itself only provides for writing the prescription, not for what happens afterwards." [Hedberg, Transcript of Testimony, 12/9/04]

• H. 44 has no provisions to track abuse or the number of deaths from assisted suicide.

As in Oregon's law, H. 44 requires physicians, who write prescriptions for assisted suicide, to file reports with the department of health. [5291 (b)] However, there are no penalties for not reporting.

The accuracy of physician self-reporting in Oregon has been called into question. Following the first year after the Oregon law went into effect, the Oregon Health Division (OHD) – now called the Department of Human Services (DHS) – which is responsible for collecting the required information, issued a report stating that "it is difficult, if not impossible, to detect accurately and comment on underreporting." [NEJM 2/18/99, 583]

And since whatever is reported comes from the very doctors who prescribe the lethal doses, the information may be fabricated. According to the OHD, "For that matter, the entire account could have been a cock and bull story. We assume, however, that physicians were their usual careful and accurate selves." [OHD, CD Summary, vol. 48, no. 6, 3/16/99; emphasis added.]

From the time Oregon’s assisted-suicide law went into effect, state officials in charge of formulating annual reports have conceded "there’s no way to know if additional deaths went unreported" because DHS "has no regulatory authority or resources to ensure compliance with the law." [American Medical News, 9/7/98]

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