Oregon's Death with Dignity Numbers Don't Tell the Whole Story

By Tom D'Antoni, The Huffington Post Blog, March 9, 2006

Numbers tell some of the story. Thirty-eight people took their own lives, legally in 2005 under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, according to figures just released from the Oregon State Department of Human Services, which keeps tabs on who gets the lethal doses and why they take them or not take them.

That's thirty-eight deaths out of the sixty-four prescriptions written. Of those who got the prescriptions and didn't take the medication, fifteen died from their illnesses and seventeen were still alive. Six people who had gotten their prescriptions during 2004 died in 2005 from the medication. Those numbers have been stable since 2002, one way or the other.

They mostly had cancer. They averaged seventy years of age.

There are more numbers, but that's all they are, just numbers.

Unless you've been at the bedside of one of those numbers, as I have, you can only imagine what a blessing the Oregon Death With Dignity Act has been to the handful of suffering souls (one out of every 800 deaths in Oregon) who have had their final life decision in their own hands.

The opponents of the Oregon law warned against all kinds of horrors. They said thousands would be rushing to Oregon to take advantage of the law. That the law would be used to euthanize the disabled, against their will. That the law would be used by family members wishing to rid themselves of the expense of caring for their dying relations. That people would use the law indiscriminately and there would be lines around the block for prescriptions.

None of what the fear-mongers warned came true. The biggest opponent, the Catholic Church was also the biggest donor to the failed effort to knock down the Oregon law in the two ballot initiatives. The fundamentalist-right and the Republicans were right behind them. Does it seem familiar, the use of fear to persuade? It's the most pervasive tool among those who wish to control other people's behavior.

Scare tactics have become so pervasive, even TV news uses breathless reporters to scare us about a few snowflakes.

We are all afraid of death. Even if you believe that there's a benevolent father waiting for you in the clouds, or if you believe that a party of virgins-gone-wild is your reward, nobody wants to die. Nobody except those near death, who wish to end their suffering while they still have a little dignity left. That's why it's called Death With Dignity.

That's how Robert Schwartz died, with dignity, surrounded by his friends and family. An AIDS patient, he was the subject of a two year project by me and co-director Greg Bond to document how one person used the law. He died wearing our microphone.

Every year, when the numbers come out I feel it is my duty in, one form or another, to find a public forum to remind people that each of these numbers is a person who wanted to live, but who also wanted to control the end of life. Each has a separate story. Each took the decision excruciatingly seriously when it came to the time to take the medication.

I watched Robert Schwartz chose two dates for his own death, and then change his mind. I watched him chose to have his enlarged spleen removed so that he might rid himself of some of the pain so that he might live a few more months.

So when you read these numbers, take a moment to consider what each of these people experienced. And then think about your own death for a moment. It isn't easy, but it's something you're going to experience, no matter how indestructible you may feel at this moment.

Several other states are considering Death With Dignity laws, using the Oregon law as a model. The opponents will trot out the same old arguments, but mostly what they're really saying, underlying their statements, is that their opposition is based on their religion. That's fine for them. It's not fine for the rest of us.

Fighting for personal rights and against religious tyranny is a fact of life. It has always been and will always be. The use of religious coercion is a fundamental human flaw, but it has nothing to do with how I wish to choose the manner of my own death.

I'm lucky to live in Oregon.

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Posted Comments

i am eagerly awaiting being able to see "robert's story." thank you for your work.

when human fear of death drives policy decisions, horrors ensue. i hope that other states start to follow oregon's example.

namaste.
Posted by: DLT on March 09, 2006 at 07:28pm
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The Catholic Church -- and many other large churches -- can be counted on to oppose almost every legislative effort to ease human suffering and generally advance humanity.

Look back in history. If it was a good idea, the churches were against it.

It's too bad that hell is just a myth used by religionists to scare the gullible. If it were real, I'm quite confident that the hottest portion would be occupied by religious leaders.
Posted by: Merlin7 on March 09, 2006 at 07:38pm
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I was very disappointd to see the new Chief Justice of the Supremes, himself a Catholic, Roberts vote against the citizens of the state of Oregon on this very issue. When the rights of the government(church) are superior to the rights of the citizen, you're moving into the fascism of the right wing of the political spectrum.
Posted by: Henry on March 09, 2006 at 07:57pm
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TOM... good post.

THIS IS a very important dialogue that america needs to have, but is inhibited by childish christian notions of bible-sky-god delusions.

YUP... SUFFERING and lack of personal autonomy is perfectly fine with these pew-lemmings, since Captain bible-god and Skipper jesus are flying that big air-ship in the clouds... and the little human "rats" scurrying around the docks, just shouldn't interfere with "the almighty".

WHAT PERVERSE nonsense.

IT IS so sad we have one progressive state in the Union that "gets it"... and affords at least some sense of self-control and dignity, in the "last days".

IT IS absolutely clear that in both Oregon and Holland, the law works as intended and the christian zealots, like just about everything else they stick their noses into, were completely wrong and misguided.

Sheesh!
Posted by: spinoza on March 09, 2006 at 11:55pm
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I oppose this so called "death with dignity," campaign by the globalists. Yes expose it for what it is, a kind of "Soylent Green," solution to get rid of "useless eaters." Supporting this insight is the way in which doctors are being thrown in jail for prescibing pain killers for terminally ill patients. The Federal Government is an ever more fearful master and servant, given the so called Patriot Act just renewed which insults every man who ever fought and died for this country. It will make this globalist task of killing people more and more efficient as they confiscate more and more guns. Do you think Stalin would have succeeded in killing anywhere for 60 to 100 million people without gun control.

Connect the dots, add up some more disturging facts, and everyone, quit being so overspecialized please.
Posted by: SpaceCommand on March 10, 2006 at 02:13am
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Spacecommand:
This right in the state of Oregon was voted for twice by the citizenry and both times passed with comfortable wins. This is by, for, and of the people. This pursuit of termination has to begin with the individual, not the government.
Trust me, when this current ilk evolves into the Joe Stalins that they wannabe, they'll find a quicker, more efficient way, and this right in Oregon for the citizen, will have served those who wish to avail thmselves to this alternative. You sound a bit paranoid there. Geo and the Trickster can be voted out.
Posted by: Henry on March 10, 2006 at 08:45am
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I've been at the bedside of two terminally ill relatives as they struggled on the bitterly painful edge of death, ravaged by untreatable disease. Each would have chosen death with dignity if it had been an option. Everyone who loved them, and stayed with them through the end, would have chosen it for them, as well.
It's not the loss of those loved one that is so painful for us, it's the memory of their unnecessarily torturous deaths.
Posted by: mswings on March 10, 2006 at 10:06am
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