News Release

Contact: Robert C. Kenneth by e-mail, or call (503) 228-4415.

Portland, OR – Today, the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) released its seventh annual report on the Death with Dignity law.  The DHS, an independent, non-partisan state agency, is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Oregon law.  The report provides a summary of the experiences of patients and physicians who participated in the law during its seventh year of implementation (January 1, 2004 – December 31, 2004).

The report’s findings include:

1. 37 individuals availed themselves of the law in 2004 (approximately 12/10,000 total deaths in Oregon last year);
2. All the individuals were covered by some form of health insurance;
3. 89% were enrolled in hospice care;
4. Those choosing Death with Dignity were well-educated (51% with college degrees) and cited loss of autonomy, decreasing ability to engage in enjoyable activities and loss of dignity as their primary end-of-life concerns;
5. 97% of the individuals were able to die at home;
6. Cancer was the most common diagnosis.

For the seventh consecutive year, data continues to demonstrate that the law works as intended.   

Despite the care with which the law has been implemented and the peace of mind it has provided to those at the end of life, the Oregon Death with Dignity law remains under attack.

On February 22, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice's request for a hearing in Gonzales v. Oregon, No. 04-623 (formerly Oregon v. Ashcroft; Alberto Gonzales succeeded John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General in February 2005). 

The Court will likely hear the case this fall.  The Death with Dignity law remains in effect.

Since 1994, the Death with Dignity National Center has fought to support and defend the Death with Dignity law--on the local ballot, in federal courts, in the halls of Congress, and now, before the U.S. Supreme Court.  We are committed to choice and patient control at the end-of-life. 

For up-to-the-minute information on the Death with Dignity law, the litigation, and efforts at end-of-life care reform in other states, please visit: www.deathwithdignity.org.

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