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| Disabilities Ethical History International Medical Psychological Religious |
U.S. Historical Perspective and Current Trends Alaska California California Death With Dignity Act Florida Hawaii Maine Michigan Proposal B - Michigan's Ballot Initiative on Assisted Suicide New Hampshire New Hampshire Aid-in-Dying Act New York Oregon 1st Annual Report on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (1998) 2nd Annual Report on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (1999) 3rd Annual Report on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (2000) 4th Annual Report on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (2001) 5th Annual Report on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (2002) Eighth Annual Report on Assisted Suicide in Oregon. Executive Summary of the 5th Annual Report on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (2002) How Do Oregon Psychologists View Their Role in Physician-Assisted Suicide? Measure 16 - Oregon Death With Dignity Act Oregon's Assisted Suicide Experience: Safeguards Don't Work Physician-Assisted Suicide: Reflections on Oregon's First Case The Oregon Report: Don't Ask, Don't Tell Vermont Washington |
Suicide in the West Wesley J. Smith, Suicide in the West, STANDARD WKLY., Apr. 20, 1998, at 12When euthanasia enthusiasts urged Oregon voters to legalize assisted suicide, voters were assured that life termination would be conducted under the watchful eye of the state, with rigorous guidelines strictly enforced to prevent abuse. After twice being approved by voters and surviving a U.S. Supreme Court challenge, Oregon's assisted-suicide regime is now in place. The first deaths were administered in March of 1998. It is already clear that the suicide advocates deceived voters. Oregon has shrouded the suicide procedure in secrecy. The state collects statistics after the fact, when it is too late to prevent abuses. Those who favor the new law control the release of information. Openness became the first casualty of the new law. The Oregon Health Division decreed in December of 1998 that secrecy would be the suicide bureaucracy's guiding principle. The only information that will be released publicly will be brief and nonspecific statistical data. Absolutely no information will be released about the time or place of any individual assisted suicide. The identities of those killed under the law will remain confidential. Death certificates will not list assisted suicide as a cause of death. The circumstances of individuals whose lives are ended through lethal prescriptions will not be disclosed. Bureaucrats who violate the gag order will be fired. All of this means, of course, that there will be no effective oversight and no way for the public to judge how the law works. Posted on June 26, 2004. |