Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the Oregon Medical Board have now settled a lawsuit by ceasing to require terminally ill people to be state residents in order to obtain deadly medication to end their own lives.

Oregon is the first state to drop the residency requirement.

Dr. Nicholas Gideonse, Portland physician represented by Compassion and Choices, a non-profit that advocates for physician-assisted suicide, filed the lawsuit last October contending that restricting the right to die by state lines violated Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and the U.S. Constitution.

Gideonse’s suit was against the governor, attorney general, Multnomah County’s district attorney and state health officials. The attorney claimed the requirement was both discriminatory and profoundly unfair to dying patients at a critical time in their life. “In no other way is my practice restricted to Oregon residents,” Gideonse said. His statement specifically mentioned impeding quality care for Washington patients that are terminally ill.

Washington State legalized assisted suicide on March 5, 2009, called the Death with Dignity Act that is similar to Oregon’s law. It allows a terminally ill patient to request a lethal prescription from their doctor if they have less than six months to live.

While Washington has a law, providers in the southwestern part of the state are religiously affiliated facilities that prohibit it.

California has also passed an assisted suicide law in 2016.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Nine states have legalized physician-assisted suicide including Oregon, California, Washington, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont plus DC. Montana requires a court ruling.

Still, Oregon Right to Life advocates voiced concern that there is a dangerously short physician-patient relationship that would provide protection against predatory practices providing no accountability on life and death issues.

Oregon could become an assisted suicide tourism destination.

OHA records indicate some 2,159 people have died from prescription lethal drugs under the law since it took effect in 1997. Advocates want to press other states to also drop their residency requirements.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-04-01 09:53:47

Last Update: 2022-04-01 10:13:15