OREGON REPORTS
15 EUTHANASIA DEATHS

The Oregon Health Division has reported that 15 people have been killed since the state's law legalizing assisting suicide went into effect. The results of the Oregon Health Division's first annual report were published in the Feb. 18, 1999, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). All deaths occurred in calendar year 1998.

According to the NEJM article, 23 patients received lethal dosages of barbiturates. Fifteen died, their deaths followed between 15 minutes and 11 hours after the patients took the drugs. Another six patients died of their illnesses without taking the death doses, while two were still alive as of January 1, 1999. Health officials noted that the time it takes to die "is not always rapid or predictable."

Oregon is the only jurisdiction in the world where assisted suicide is legally sanctioned. The measure legalizing assisted suicide was first passed by Oregon voters in 1994 and approved again in 1997.

The official report noted that some of the 14 doctors who prescribed the lethal medications reported "a large emotional toll" from participating in the killing. The report concluded that the strongest factor influencing those who obtained drugs to kill themselves, in comparison with similarly situated individuals who did not, was that those who killed themselves " were more likely ... to express concern about loss of autonomy."

Ironically, this conclusion was reported only months after publication of a book by Derek Humphry, founder of the Hem-lock Society, in which he predicted, "[E]conomics, not the quest for broadened individual liberties or increased autonomy, will drive assisted suicide to the plateau of accepted practice...."

Humphry suggested the existence of "a duty to die - - a responsibility within the family unit - - that should remain voluntary but expected nevertheless" (see Wesley Smith article, p. 18).

Although reported in the major media in reassuring terms - - " only" 15 people had "used" the "option" - - the report did provide support for one of the points frequently made by euthanasia opponents - - that pain can be controlled by modern medicine and should never be a reason for a euthanasia request. Only one of the 15 Oregon suicides expressed any concern about pain as a motivation for suicide.

Psychiatrist Herbert Hendin, M.D., executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and a founder of Americans for Integrity in Palliative Care, noted that the official report was flawed because of the limitations placed on the data that could be gathered.

"Under the law, the only information the OHD [Oregon Health Department] is required to collect comes from the physician assisting the suicide, and even then, there is no enforcement mechanism should the physician not comply with reporting rules or simply not report the suicide at all," Dr. Hendin said. "So secretive has the OHD been that it distributed a memo saying that any state employee who reveals even that a death has occurred in his or her county 'will immediately be terminated'"

Although the official report claimed that those who killed themselves were not influenced by financial considerations, Oregon has a health care rationing system under which payment for certain lifesaving treatments is denied, while the cost of killing oneself is fully covered.

Burke Balch, director of NRLC's Department of Medical Ethics, commented, "The Oregon law is just the foot in the door. As with the Netherlands, the first victims are small in number and all the talk is about how rarely and responsibly the 'option' is being used. But for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the signs are evident that euthanasia proponents plan gradually to expand the eligible list of victims, and to move from voluntary through nonvoluntary to involuntary euthanasia."

Balch added, "Like a crack in a dyke, unless stopped the Oregon death regime threatens to pull down the whole wall protecting the most vulnerable, especially older people and people with disabilities. A protective national law is urgently needed to end the killing before its spread becomes unstoppable."