RSSDeath With Dignity, a decade later
By None, Willamette Week, March 19, 2008
Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion and Choices, said she was gratified to see that terminally ill patients used the law more in 2007 than in 2006. The number of Oregon patients that had lethal medication prescribed in 2007 was 85 compared with 65 in 2006, according to the report from OR-DHS. Of the 85 patients, only 46 actually took the medication, 26 died from the underlying disease, and 13 were alive at the end of the year.
Supporters of the DWDA, such as Compassion & Choices, point to both the rise in patients asking for lethal medication from their physicians and the figures of only half that take it as a success of the law.
"Many people find comfort in the choice," Coombs Lee said. "Very few people exercise that choice." Adding that the law provides the "promise of peace and hope of comfort" to patients.
State data also showed that in 2007 patients who died were younger (median age of 65 years) than previous years (median age 70 years). All of the patients had some form of medical insurance, with 65 % using private insurance and 35% using Medicare or Medicaid.
While opponents of assisted suicide—or as supporters would prefer it called, aid in dying—have continually raised the specter of euthanasia factories, the 10-year report shows that this has not been the case in Oregon.
Sylvia Campbell, wife of former Tom McCall speechwriter Gene Maudlin, spoke at the meeting for her husband, who is terminally ill and is planning to use the law. "Gene wants to leave the planet with dignity," said Campbell, and they "both hope that every person can make these kind of choices soon."
Currently, Oregon is the only state in the country with an assisted suicide law. Washington state voters will have their say in November on the issue, and Californians have turned it down on two separate occasions.
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