As Goes Oregon, So Will Death Go In Massachusetts

Here’s the grisly truth about legal assisted suicide in Oregon, and what it will mean if similar laws are passed in Massachusetts.

The Oregon Health Plan Steers Patients to Suicide

Yesterday, the Canadian Department of Justice filed evidence in Leblanc v. Canada, including the affidavit of Oregon doctor Ken Stevens.  Therein, Dr. Stevens talks about his patient, Jeanette Hall.  He also describes how with legal assisted suicide, the Oregon Health Plan steers patients to suicide.  His affidavit concludes:

"The Oregon Health Plan is a government health plan administered by the State of Oregon. If assisted suicide is legalized in Canada, your government health plan could follow a similar pattern. If so, the plan will pay for a patient to die, but not to live." more

For Terminal Illness, Assisted Suicide Isn't The Answer

This story has been told before, but with things gearing up in Massachusetts and several other places, it’s worth repeating – sometimes people with terminal illnesses live far longer than predicted – so assisted sucide or euthanasia is not the answer.

Physician speaks on Oregon experience of assisted suicide

Twelve years ago, a patient visited Dr. Kenneth Stevens after being diagnosed with a form of cancer that would kill her in six months without treatment, seeking drugs to end her life. Over a course of the next few weeks Dr. Stevens spoke to her about other options.

"If my doctor had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead. I thank him and all my doctors for helping me to choose 'life with dignity.' Assisted suicide should not be legal. I hope Massachusetts does not make this terrible mistake," she wrote in a 2011 letter to the Boston Globe. more

Oregon: A Medical Stand Against Assisted Suicide

Here’s a refreshing change from the usual pro-deather drumbeat: A medical merger in Oregon specifically stipulates that their doctors will not participate in legalized assisted suicide.

Dignity Health officials: No assisted suicide prescriptions

Portions of Ashland Community Hospital's policy will change if a partnership is formed with Dignity Health, representatives from the hospital system told about 45 people Thursday at the first of two community forums surrounding the possible merger.

Physicians at a Dignity Health run ACH would not be able to prescribe patients who qualify under the Oregon Death with Dignity Act medication that induces death upon ingesting, Dignity Health officials said.

"If the physician is on our dime "… the thing that the physician cannot do is write the prescription and hand it to the patient," said Carol Bayley, Dignity Health's vice president for ethics and justice education. more

Oregon Death Stats Misleading

Read this and see how full of holes the Oregon assisted suicide law are. After all the assurances that legalizing assisted suicide would be strictly controlled, we find that, gee whiz, it’s open to massive abuse.

Oregon releases assisted suicide stats

Oregon’s public health division has released statistics on deaths under its physician-assisted suicide (PAS) legislation. It shows a steady increase in the number of lethal prescriptions and in the number of deaths. In 1998, the first year after PAS was legalised, there were 24 prescriptions and 16 deaths. In 2011, there were 114 prescriptions and 71 deaths. A total of 935 people have had lethal prescriptions and 596 have died.

The Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation, a staunch foe of the legislation, analysed the 2011 figures. Here are some of its comments:

62 doctors wrote 114 prescriptions, with some writing up to 14 prescriptions each. Some doctors knew the patient for only one week before writing the prescriptions. It is known that some doctors are prominent prescribers of lethal barbiturates for assisted suicide.

The report states “9 people with prescriptions written in previous years ingested medication during 2011”. The term “previous years” indicates that some received prescriptions during multiple years prior to 2011 (such as in 2010, 2009 or earlier). In short, some individuals had the prescription for longer than a year before ingesting the drugs, far longer than the law’s 6-months life expectancy guidelines. Some patients lived as long as 872 days after requesting assisted suicide. Clearly, the law’s guidelines are meaningless; not all who receive these prescriptions are terminal. more

The Media Fondly Remembers Pro-Deather

Peter Goodwin was a mover and shaker behind the Oregon law legalizing assisted suicide. He decided to die practicing what he preached. Predictably, the media gave him a fawning farewell.

Peter Goodwin: The Dying Doctor’s Last Interview

Dr. Peter Goodwin, a family physician and right-to-die activist, took his own life on March 11, 2012, at age 83. He did it legally, with the blessing of his family and doctors, under the Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicide — the first such law in the country — that Goodwin was instrumental in creating.

Dr. Goodwin granted TIME his last interview, four days before he died. (The full interview in the new issue of TIME is available to subscribers here.) He did not look like a dying man; he was chirpy and alert and still had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. However, as a result of his fatal disease — a Parkinsons-like condition called coritcobasal degeneration — he could not use his right hand or do much reliably with his left. Walking was difficult for him and stairs were particularly treacherous. He did not want to die, but death was coming anyway, and he did not want to wait. more

Oregon Breaks Assisted Suicide Record

If you build a pro-death law, they will come . . .

Oregon breaks its assisted suicide record

The state of Oregon set another record last year for physician-assisted suicides, and critics continue to decry the practice and the annual report.

Seventy-one people died by means of assisted suicide in 2011, the Oregon Public Health Division reported March 6. A total of 114 people received prescriptions for lethal drug doses during the year. Those figures surpassed the previous highs in the state: 65 deaths and 97 prescriptions, both in 2010. more