Oregan euthanisa laws

[Guest guest]

All,

After research, I am listing below what I found but only two states have the

" Death with Dignity Act " , as it called, and they are Oregon and Washington

state. Other states consider it a criminal act and there is criteria listed

about those states and criteria of " assisted suicide " where a criminal

prosecution might not be considered. From what I read, it must, I write again,

must be self administered, otherwise, others might be involved.

This is so ironic as my College Thesis was titled " Death with Dignity " and

nowhere did I list " assisted suicide " but did list some of the criteria I found

to include Hospice and other support services.

The criteria, as I thought, requires some doing and is not done lightly

supposedly.

A: The patient must meet certain criteria to be able to request to participate

in the Act. Then, the following steps must be fulfilled: 1) the patient must

make two oral requests to the attending physician, separated by at least 15

days; 2) the patient must provide a written request to the attending physician,

signed in the presence of two witnesses, at least one of whom is not related to

the patient; 3) the attending physician and a consulting physician must confirm

the patient's diagnosis and prognosis; 4) the attending physician and a

consulting physician must determine whether the patient is capable of making and

communicating health care decisions for him/herself; 5) if either physician

believes the patient's judgment is impaired by a psychiatric or psychological

disorder (such as depression), the patient must be referred for a psychological

examination; 6) the attending physician must inform the patient of feasible

alternatives to the Act including comfort care, hospice care, and pain control;

7) the attending physician must request, but may not require, the patient to

notify their next-of-kin of the prescription request. A patient can rescind a

request at any time and in any manner. The attending physician will also offer

the patient an opportunity to rescind his/her request at the end of the 15-day

waiting period following the initial request to participate.

Physicians must report all prescriptions for lethal medications to the

Department of Human Services, Vital Records. As of 1999, pharmacists must be

informed of the prescribed medication's ultimate use.

Q: What kind of prescription will a patient receive?

A: It is up to the physician to determine the prescription. To date, most

patients have received a prescription for an oral dosage of a barbiturate.

I am confused by this information, they list as patients that use this option,

as some remained alive and died of their disease so they, even though they took

the medication, remained and died of their disease, they used to obtain the

medication and took. The eleven prescriptions they took to commit suicide and

did not die but they include it under the " Suicide Act " , confusing the figures.

So this report includes everyone who got a prescription and died even though

they might have died of the disease, they just had the prescription from the

Doctor, and did not die from taking them. This I do not consider accurate but

the state only tracks, Death of those who apply, get the prescriptions, and do

not differentiate in the summary statement of 292 patients have died under the

terms of the law, but do so in the report on their website.

Summary statement: (Not with breakdown of those who died outside of the

prescription dose but were included because they got a prescription, and died

later not taking the prescription).

During 2006, 65 prescriptions for lethal medications under the provisions of the

DWDA were written (figure 1). Of these, 35 patients took the medications, 19

died of their underlying disease, and 11 were alive at the end of 2006. In

addition, 11 patients with earlier prescriptions died from taking the

medications, resulting in a total of 46 DWDA deaths during 2006. This

corresponds to an estimated 14.7 DWDA deaths per 10,000 total deaths.

Forty physicians wrote the 65 prescriptions (range 1-7).

Since the law was passed in 1997, 292 patients have died under the terms of

the law.

Hope this was helpful and the friend of Carol's should have never been offered

this option and shame on the health care officials that offered (using the

health care officials lightly as they do not deserve it).

I am sure the Hemlock Society lists the Doctors you can go to but the State does

not and will not intervene in this process and any medical participant does not

have to participate in this, it is a voluntary process.

Bennie