I am a doctor in Portland Oregon. I disagree with your staff editorial and its rosy depiction of our assisted suicide law.
Contrary to the editorial, the safeguards in Oregon's law have proved to be a sieve. Although "only the patient" is supposed to take the lethal dose, there are documented cases of family members administering it.
Family members often have their own agendas and also financial interests that dovetail with a patient's death. Yet the true extent of such cases is not known as the only data published comes from second and even third-hand reports (often from doctors who themselves who were not present at the death and who are active suicide promoters). What we do know about assisted suicide in Oregon is essentially shrouded in secrecy.
The scant information provided by the "official" Oregon statistics report that the majority of patients who
have died via Oregon's law have been "well educated" with private health insurance. http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/year…
In other words, they were likely people with money. Was it really their "choice?"
Preserve choice in Montana. Reject assisted suicide. Thank you.
William L. Toffler MD
Professor of Family Medicine
OHSU--FM
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road
Portland, OR 97239
503-494-5322 (office)
503-494-4496 (fax)
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Re: “etc.”
Dear Editor:
I am a doctor in Portland Oregon. I disagree with your staff editorial and its rosy depiction of our assisted suicide law.
Contrary to the editorial, the safeguards in Oregon's law have proved to be a sieve. Although "only the patient" is supposed to take the lethal dose, there are documented cases of family members administering it.
Family members often have their own agendas and also financial interests that dovetail with a patient's death. Yet the true extent of such cases is not known as the only data published comes from second and even third-hand reports (often from doctors who themselves who were not present at the death and who are active suicide promoters). What we do know about assisted suicide in Oregon is essentially shrouded in secrecy.
The scant information provided by the "official" Oregon statistics report that the majority of patients who
have died via Oregon's law have been "well educated" with private health insurance. http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/year…
In other words, they were likely people with money. Was it really their "choice?"
Preserve choice in Montana. Reject assisted suicide. Thank you.
William L. Toffler MD
Professor of Family Medicine
OHSU--FM
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road
Portland, OR 97239
503-494-5322 (office)
503-494-4496 (fax)