Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Death With Dignity, Oregon's brave accomplishment
An August 20th study published in the Journal of Clinical Ethics declares that Oregon's Death With Dignity Law has not increased the practice and in fact may have caused a decline in requests to doctors.
The study, conducted by Oregon Health Sciences University, is the first to examinewho considers the practice as well as those who carry it out. Over the six year period that the law has been in place, 171 Oregonians have chosen to take the lethal prescription and carry out their own end of life decision.
In a highly unexpected twist, the study discovered that roughly 1 in every 1000 deaths in Oregon were a result of doctor assisted suicide. That number is much lower than predicted by both opponents and proponents of the law during it's debate period. It's also much lower than the considered national average. Another study of terminally ill patients in six states where doctor assisted suicide remains illegal found that 1 in every 250 patients deaths happened via doctor assisted suicide.
Other findings reported in the study:
*Patients who consider using the law are remarkably similar to those who actually do: they tend to be younger, white and their income is over $30k per year. But unlike those who actually follow through with it, they tend not to be well educated.
*Oregonians remain very divided on the issue. More than 40% of families reject using the law both for themselves and for those around them.
*Protestants and Roman Catholics are about half as likely, compared with people with no religious affiliation, to favor assisted suicide.
*None of the 62 dying African Americans in the study was reported to have considered assisted suicide. Twenty percent of white patients did.
This law, passed twice by the citizens of Oregon, has been under constant attack by the Bush Administration, specifically Attorney General John Ashcroft. Ashcroft has so far unsuccessfully taken the issue to court. But as long as Ashcroft is AG, the law will be in danger from federal intervention.
This issue is a big loser for Bush. While the law is controversial even in Oregon, Oregonians want the feds to remain out of it.
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The study, conducted by Oregon Health Sciences University, is the first to examinewho considers the practice as well as those who carry it out. Over the six year period that the law has been in place, 171 Oregonians have chosen to take the lethal prescription and carry out their own end of life decision.
In a highly unexpected twist, the study discovered that roughly 1 in every 1000 deaths in Oregon were a result of doctor assisted suicide. That number is much lower than predicted by both opponents and proponents of the law during it's debate period. It's also much lower than the considered national average. Another study of terminally ill patients in six states where doctor assisted suicide remains illegal found that 1 in every 250 patients deaths happened via doctor assisted suicide.
Other findings reported in the study:
*Patients who consider using the law are remarkably similar to those who actually do: they tend to be younger, white and their income is over $30k per year. But unlike those who actually follow through with it, they tend not to be well educated.
*Oregonians remain very divided on the issue. More than 40% of families reject using the law both for themselves and for those around them.
*Protestants and Roman Catholics are about half as likely, compared with people with no religious affiliation, to favor assisted suicide.
*None of the 62 dying African Americans in the study was reported to have considered assisted suicide. Twenty percent of white patients did.
This law, passed twice by the citizens of Oregon, has been under constant attack by the Bush Administration, specifically Attorney General John Ashcroft. Ashcroft has so far unsuccessfully taken the issue to court. But as long as Ashcroft is AG, the law will be in danger from federal intervention.
This issue is a big loser for Bush. While the law is controversial even in Oregon, Oregonians want the feds to remain out of it.
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