Assisted suicide now one in 200 deaths in Oregon

The latest release of data on Oregon’s 22 year old experiment with assisted suicide reinforces how flawed this fatal experiment is, including the fundamental concern that as there is no witness known to be present in four out of ten cases in which the lethal poison is ingested it may have been administered to them by a family member or other person under duress, surreptitiously or violently. Such is the design of this assisted suicide scheme that we can never now. 

What we do know is that assisted suicide is being chosen more for existential reasons, including feeling a burden on family and friends (59% of cases in 2019) than because of any concern about inadequate pain control (mentioned by 26.6% of people overall).

Numbers continue to rise at an average rate of 15% per annum since 1999 so that now one in 200 (0.5%) of all deaths in Oregon are by ingestion of a lethal poison under Oregon's assisted suicide law.

Oregon’s Dying With Dignity Act which allows medical practitioners to prescribe lethal drugs to a person to use to commit suicide came into force on 27 October 1997.

Oregon publishes annual reports on the operation of the Dying With Dignity Act.  Although the data is limited nonetheless a careful analysis of the 22 annual reports published to date reveals significant issues with the practice of physician assisted suicide in Oregon.

Increase in number of deaths

The number of deaths from ingesting lethal substances prescribed under Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act reached 188 in 2019 continuing a steady rise since 1998, the first full year of the Act’s operation when 16 people died under its provisions. Assisted suicide accounted for 1 in 200 deaths of persons in Oregon in 2018.

Pain is not a major issue but “being a burden” is

The Oregon annual reports indicate that pain is not a major issue for those requesting physician assisted suicide.  Just over one in four (26.6%) of those who have died from ingesting a lethal dose of medication since 1997 mentioned a concern about pain control (they were not necessarily experiencing pain) as a reason for requesting assisted suicide.

However, in 2019 nearly six out of ten (59%) cited concerns about being a “Burden on family, friends/caregivers”.

Mental health: No adequate screening

Research by Linda Ganzini has established that one in six people who died under Oregon’s law had clinical depression. Depression is supposed to be screened for under the Act. 

However, in 2019 only 1 out of 188 (0.53%) of those who died under the Oregon law were referred by the prescribing doctor for a psychiatric evaluation before writing a script for a lethal substance. This means it is likely that about 30 people with clinical depression were prescribed and took a lethal poison without being referred for a psychiatric evaluation.

Financial considerations             

Of those who died from ingesting a lethal dose of medication in 2019, more than one in fourteen (7.4%) mentioned the “financial implications of treatment” as a consideration.

In two notorious cases, those of Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup, the Oregon Health Plan informed a patient by letter that the particular cancer treatment recommended by their physicians was not covered by the Plan but that the cost of a lethal prescription to end their life would be covered.

The misleading notion of a rapid and peaceful death

The lethal drugs prescribed for assisted suicide do not always result in a swift and peaceful death.

In 2019 one in ten (9.84%) of those for whom information about the circumstances of their deaths is available either had difficulty ingesting or regurgitated the lethal dose (2) or had other complications (4). In 2018 nearly one in eight (12.12%) of those for whom information about the circumstances of their deaths (or failure to die) is available either had difficulty ingesting or regurgitated the lethal dose (3) or had other unspecified complications (4). One person failed to die and regained consciousness. In 2017 two people had seizures after ingesting the drugs.

The interval from ingestion of lethal drugs to unconsciousness has been as long as four hours (in 2017). In 2018 for one person the interval from ingestion of lethal drugs to unconsciousness was as long as 60 minutes.

The time from ingestion to death has been as long as 104 hours (4 days and 8 hours). One person in 2019 took nearly two day (47 hours) to die.

Eight people have regained consciousness after ingesting the lethal medication, including one patient in 2010 who regained consciousness 88 hours (3 days 16 hours) after ingesting the medication, subsequently dying from the underlying illness three months later.  

Faulty prognosis

The Death With Dignity Act provides that before prescribing a lethal substance a doctor must first determine whether a person has a “terminal disease”.  This is defined as “an incurable and irreversible disease that has been medically confirmed and will, within reasonable medical judgment, produce death within six months”.

In 2019 one person ingested lethal medication 1503 days (4 years and 4 1/2 months) after the initial request for the lethal prescription was made surpassing the previous record duration of 1009 days (that is 2 years and 9 months). Evidently in these cases the prognosis was wildly inaccurate. It also means that any assessment of competence made at the time of prescribing the lethal substance is well out of date - the person may well have become incompetent to make a decision to ingest the lethal substance for the purpose of causing their own death. 

Not a terminal illness

There have been a total of 13 people for whom the “underlying illness” has been listed as “Endocrine/metabolic disease [e.g., diabetes]”. Arthritis, arteritis, stenosis and sclerosis (none of which are usually terminal illnesses) have also been recorded as the underlying illness justifying assisted suicide, as well as in 2019 "complications from a fall" (a very imprecise statement of a medical condition). This suggests that even the central requirement that an illness be terminal may not be strictly applied.

Short relationship with attending physicians

The Oregon statute specifies that lethal prescriptions only be written by a person’s “attending physician” who is defined as “the physician who has primary responsibility for the care of the patient and treatment of the patient's terminal disease.”

The data indicates that in some cases doctors have had a relationship with the patient of less than one week’s duration and that in 2019, in half the cases the doctor-patient relationship was of 12 weeks duration or less.

Who administers the lethal medication?

In 2019 a physician or other healthcare provider was known to be present at the time the person died after the lethal substance was ingested in only one third of all cases.  A "volunteer" is reported as present at the time of death in  in a further one in four cases. 

In the remaining four out of ten cases (39.6%) there is therefore no evidence that the person took the lethal medication voluntarily. It may well have been administered to them by a family member or other person under duress, surreptitiously or violently. We can never know.

Conclusion

Oregon’s 22 year experiment with an assisted suicide law, far from providing a model that other jurisdictions should follow, serves as a warning that such a law cannot guarantee that all deaths from assisted suicide are either voluntary or peaceful, or limited to those who actually meet the eligibility criteria. 

Download an 16 page summary on Oregon