Legal suicides - 63% because of fear of being a burden        new 3/2/2001 
Oregon Cable Station To Air How-To Suicide Video   new 2/6/2000 

Pro-Life Analysis of Oregon's Assisted Suicide Cases

Comments by Richard M. Doerflinger; Associate Director for Policy Development; Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities; National Conference of Catholic Bishops

Re: Oregon's Third Year of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Today's report from the Oregon Health Division on legally permitted physician-assisted suicides in 2000 provides no adequate information on abuses of the state's guidelines, and is not designed to do so. The 27 assisted suicides reported for this third year of Oregon's 'experiment' in lethal medicine are simply those cases which the physician-perpetrators themselves chose to report. The total number of actual cases, not to mention the number of times various 'safeguards' were distorted or simply ignored, remains concealed in the name of physician-patient confidentiality.

However, even the data released by physicians who assist suicides are disturbing enough. Twenty-seven Oregonians died last year from lethal overdoses of controlled substances deliberately prescribed by physicians, who invoked prescribing privileges granted to them by our federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The most significant changes compared to the previous year are as follows:

- A startling 63% of these patients (compared to 26% in 1999) cited fear of being a 'burden on family, friends or caregivers' as a reason for their suicide. Some patients and families are learning all too well the deeper message of Oregon's law: terminally ill patients have received this special 'right' to state-approved suicide not because they are special in any positive way, but because they are seen as special burdens upon the rest of us.

- 30% cited concern about 'inadequate pain control' as a reason for their death (compared to 26% the year before), despite claims by the Oregon law's defenders that legalizing assisted suicide would improve pain control and eliminate such concerns.

- Also rising is the percentage of victims who were married (67%, up from 44%) and who were female (56%, up from 41%). It seems some older married women in Oregon are receiving the message that they are a 'burden' on their husbands, and then acquiescing in assisted suicide.

- Despite a medical consensus that the vast majority of suicidal wishes among the sick and elderly are due to treatable depression, in only 19% of these cases (compared to 37% the previous year) did the doctor bother to refer the patient for a psychological evaluation.

- The median time between a patient's initial request for assisted suicide and his or her death by overdose also decreased markedly, from 83 days to 30 days. Oregon's experiment is taking on more of the features of an assembly line.

These signs of the 'slippery slope' in action, illustrating trends predicted by critics of the Oregon law, underscore the need to end this state's experiment before it claims more lives.

Source: National Conference of Catholic Bishops; February 23, 2001 as quoted in Pro-Life Infonet 2/26/01 #2366 The Pro-Life Infonet is a daily compilation of pro-life news and information. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe" to: infonet-request@prolifeinfo.org. Infonet is sponsored by Women and Children First (http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.org). For more pro-life info visit http://www.prolifeinfo.org and for questions or additional information email ertelt@prolifeinfo.org

Oregon Cable Station To Air How-To Suicide Video 

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A new do-it-yourself program is coming to television in Oregon, but it's not about cooking or home repair: It's a video guide to committing suicide based on the best-selling pro-euthanasia book "Final Exit.''

Even some assisted suicide advocates are uneasy about this week's broadcast on cable television in Eugene and Springfield.

"I think it's reckless,'' said Barbara Coombs Lee, executive director of the Portland-based Compassion in Dying Federation. "It can give people the means to act on impulsiveness.''

Coombs Lee was among those involved in the campaign for Oregon's first-in-the-nation law that allows doctors to participate in assisted suicides.

"Final Exit'' author Derek Humphry said his goal in making the video was to help desperately ill people and their loved ones, not all of whom are accustomed to seeking help from libraries or books. He said his Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization has sold hundreds of copies of the video.

The print version of "Final Exit'' has sold more than 1 million copies and has been printed in 12 languages.

"There is undoubtedly a hunger for this type of information,'' said the 69-year-old author, who lives near Junction City, Oregon. "This is something 60 to 70 percent of the public supports. It's not something crazy or anarchist.''

In the video, Humphry lists the top three lethal drugs, in order of potency, and offers tips on where to find them with or without a doctor's prescription. Then he shows how to mix them into an easy-to-gulp pudding.  The video will air on Wednesday and Friday on a public access cable channel.

Dr. Gregory Hamilton, a Portland psychiatrist and opponent of assisted suicide, said the risk of such a presentation is that it tells suicidal people how to be effective at killing themselves. Most first-time suicide attempts fail, he said, which gives caregivers a chance to help people through depression.

"What's even more dangerous is the devaluing message such a television show sends to people,'' Hamilton said. "It serves a covert suggestive function that suicide is OK. For people who are on the edge, it pushes them over.''

Information taken from The Pro-Life Infonet.  The Pro-Life Infonet is a daily compilation of pro-life news and information. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe" to: infonet- request@prolifeinfo.org. Infonet is sponsored by Women and Children First (http://www.prolifeinfo.org/wcf). For more pro-life info visit http://www.prolifeinfo.org and for questions or additional information email ertelt@prolifeinfo.org Source: Associated Press, 1/31/00

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