The number of assisted suicides in Oregon rose by a fifth to 367 deaths last year, with more people facing vomiting and other complications, and one patient taking nearly a week to die.
The states annual report over its Death with Dignity Act (DWDA), as the proceedings are known, comes as more and more US states consider allowing the terminally ill to end their lives with lethal doses of prescription drugs.
The 18-page report, released this month, showed that 560 people received prescriptions for deadly drugs in 2023, and 367 took them and died from them, both sharp increases from 2022.
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) said the increase was driven by a recent relaxation of state law that allows people from other states to travel to Oregon and order medications there, a process known as “death tourism.”
Physician-assisted suicide plans are available in all three West Coast states. Pictured: Robert Fuller begins to insert the medications that will end his life into his feeding tube in Seattle, Washington.
Some 4,274 people have received prescriptions and 2,847 have died from taking deadly drugs since Oregon passed its Death with Dignity Act in 1997.
At least 23 nonresidents used the new plan and ended their lives in Oregon last year, although officials say this is likely an undercount since not all deaths are reported, the OHA official said. , Tom Jeanne.
“The full impact of allowing out-of-state residents to access the law is unclear, as information about where the patient lives has not been collected during the DWDA prescribing process,” Jeanne said.
Those who chose to end their lives in Oregon were overwhelmingly white and elderly: 82 percent of them were 65 or older.
Most often, DWDA beneficiaries suffered from cancer (66 percent), followed by brain diseases (11 percent) and heart disease (10 percent).
92 percent of them said they wanted to die because their condition would cause them to lose autonomy.
Many said they were worried about life becoming less pleasant (88 percent), loss of dignity (64 percent) and loss of bodily control (47 percent).
A worrying 43 percent said they were worried about becoming a burden to their loved ones.
Dr. Sejal Hathi heads the Oregon Health Authority, which operates the most developed physician-assisted suicide program in the United States.
An example of the drugs that doctors use to end lives in Belgium, which has one of the most developed euthanasia programs in the world
Another 8 percent said they were ending their lives because of the costs of their treatment.
Most patients died within an hour of taking their medications, usually a fatal cocktail of diazepam, morphine, phenobarbital and other medications.
Tom Jeanne, Oregon health officer
But not all deaths were quick and easy.
Ten people faced complications, such as vomiting their drugs or having a burning sensation in their throat.
It took one patient 137 hours (almost six days) to die.
The OHA did not provide further details about the slow death.
Critics of the DWDA said it was evidence that the procedures were unsafe.
“If this had been an execution, it would have been cruel or unusual punishment,” wrote British author Simon Caldwell.
The new figures come amid growing concerns that Oregon and other US states are liberalizing their assisted suicide programs too quickly and following the lead of Canada, where 13,241 people were euthanized in 2022.
Currently, physician-assisted suicides are allowed in 10 states and Washington, DC.
Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide program has been controversial from the beginning. Pictured: Protesters from both sides of the debate outside the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington in 2005.
In Canada, doctors administer lethal injections to the lives of terminally ill patients. In some US states, patients request a prescription for deadly medications, which they typically take at home.
This year they are being considered in 19 states, including Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Tennessee and Virginia.
These bills generally allow people with six months or less to live to request prescriptions from a doctor that they can take at home. Doctors can only prescribe medications to patients they deem mentally competent.
Supporters of assisted suicide schemes say they help some desperately ill people end their suffering.
Critics say they devalue human life and make death a solution for the sick, the disabled and even those who are cash-strapped or feel like a burden.
Oregon became the first U.S. state to allow physician-assisted suicide in 1997, allowing terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to ask doctors for a lethal dose. of medications that they then administered themselves, generally at home.
In 2023, it became the first US state to allow non-residents to travel to the West Coast state to end their lives.
Out-of-state residents must be able to spend at least 15 days in Oregon to process paperwork, which requires approval from two doctors and witnesses, before administering the fatal dose themselves.