PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Sixty Oregonians ended their lives last year by taking a lethal drug dose prescribed under the Death With Dignity Act, state officials reported Tuesday.
That’s the highest annual total in the 11-year history of the law, 11 more than in 2007. Deaths from a drug prescribed under the Oregon law now account for 2 of every 1,000 deaths in Oregon.
In all, 401 terminally ill Oregonians have died this way since 1997, when Oregon made it legal for a doctor to prescribe a lethal drug dose to a terminally ill patient who makes the request orally and in writing.
The statistics were released as Washington state joins Oregon on Thursday (March 5) as the only states where such a prescription — known variously as doctor-assisted suicide or physician aid-in-dying — is legal.
As in previous years, most Oregonians who died this way last year had cancer and were older than 70, white and highly educated. All but one was enrolled in hospice care, and all but two had some form of health insurance. Most died at home; the rest, in an assisted-living center or a foster-care home.
“The number of deaths was higher in 2008, but the rest of the patterns are essentially the same,” said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, an epidemiologist with the Department of Human Services who compiled the most recent report.
The 11th annual report is the briefest so far, suggesting the absence of surprises in year-to-year data compiled by the state. It consists of a two-page summary and less than three pages of statistics. As recently as three years ago, the annual report ran 24 pages.
While the number of deaths rose last year, the number of prescriptions written under the Death With Dignity Act stayed essentially the same — 88, compared with 85 the year before. Some patients who request and receive a lethal prescription do not use it because they reconsider, lose their capacity to swallow the drug, or die of their underlying disease.
Oregon’s law allows a doctor to prescribe a life-ending drug to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who requests it. Two oral requests must be made at least 15 days apart, plus a request in writing. A second doctor must agree the patient is expected to die within six months. The patient must swallow the lethal drug without assistance.
