The number of people who legally committed suicide with a physician’s assistance in Oregon nearly doubled last year.
Thirty-eight people used drugs prescribed by doctors to kill themselves in 2002. This was contrasted with 21 people the year before, according to a March 5 report by the Oregon department of Human Services.
Oregon is the only state that has legalized assisted suicide.
The 81 percent increase in 2002 marked the highest number of assisted suicides since Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act took effect in 1998.
The number of such suicides in previous years was 16 in 1998 and 27 in both 1999 and 20000, according to The Oregonian newspaper.
The report also found:
84 percent of the 38 people who committed assisted suicide in 2002 feared “losing autonomy.”
84 percent also were concerned about a decreasing ability to take part in enjoyable activities.
47 percent were concerned about losing control of bodily functions.
37 percent were concerned about burdening their family, friends or caregivers.
26 percent feared inadequate pain relief.
The new report also found 84 percent of those who used legal drugs to commit suicide last year had cancer. Thirty of the 38 received advice from Compassion in Dying in Oregon, a pro-assisted suicide organization, The Oregonian reported. The latest report came as the Bush administration seeks to win a court battle to end Oregon’s use of federally controlled drugs in assisted suicides.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear in May an appeal of federal judge’s ruling upholding the assisted-suicide law.
(BP)
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