The State of Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” 2006 Annual Report is now up and available on the Oregon Department of Human Services website.
The Oregon Death With Dignity (DWD) Act is Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide (PAS) law, supported at the polls by a majority of Oregon voters twice, once in 1994 and again in 1997. The Oregon law was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the law in a January 2006 landmark ruling.
Each year by directive of the state statute, the Oregon DHS provides a summary of the year’s activity under the “Death with Dignity” act (including the presentation of data in various statistical table formats). The DHS website also provides links to the portions of the report which remains stable year-to-year (for instance, the methods used to compile the data, the history of the DWD Act, etc.).
The formal announcement of the 2006 report is here: http://egov.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/07-0308.pdf
(For those without a PDF reader a summary of the 2006 report announcement text is included below).
The complete 2006 report is available in PDF format only and the various parts of the report can be located at http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/ar-index.shtml
(Note you will need a PDF reader, such as Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat, installed on your computer to view/print any of the full report documents).
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March 8, 2007
DHS Releases Annual Death With Dignity Act Report
Today the Oregon Department of Human Service (DHS) released the ninth annual report on the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which collects information on compliance with law and makes this information available to the public each year.
The report released today shows that in 2006, forty-six Oregonians ended their lives under the Death with Dignity Act in 2006, an increase from 38 in 2005.
Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act went into effect in 1997; since then 292 Oregonians have exercised their rights under the terms of the law.
As in prior years, participants were more likely to have cancer (87 percent) and to have more formal education than the general population (41 percent had at least a baccalaureate degree). However, patients who died in 2006 were slightly older than those who died in previous years, with a median age of 74 in 2006 versus 69 in previous years.
Other findings included:
• During 2006, 65 prescriptions for lethal doses of medication were written. Of these, 35 patients took lethal medications, 19 died of their underlying disease and 11 were alive at the end of 2006.
• During 2006, 11 patients died as a result of taking prescriptions that were previously prescribed.
• Ninety-three percent of patients died at home. Seventy-six percent were enrolled in hospice care, a decline from the 87 percent of previous years.
• All patients except one had some form of health insurance: 64 percent had private insurance and 33 percent had Medicare or Medicaid.
• Complications were reported in four patients; all regurgitated some of the medication.
• As in previous years, the most frequently mentioned end-of-life concerns were loss of autonomy (96 percent), a decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (96 percent) and loss of dignity (76 percent).
• There were more concerns about inadequate pain control in 2006; 48 percent versus 22 percent in previous years.
DHS is legally required to collect information on compliance with the Death with Dignity Act and to make that information available annually.
The full report can be found on the DHS Web site at http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/ar-index.shtml
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