Published annual reports from the Oregon Health Authority and Washington State Department of Health that ranged from 1998 to 2017 in Oregon and from 2009 to 2017 in Washington show some interesting facts about how the law is used.
They found that 2,558 – 76% – of the 3,368 written prescriptions resulted
in patients’ deaths, with patients more likely to be non-Hispanic white
(94.8%) and 65 years or older (72.4%).
The most common underlying illnesses
were cancer (76.4%), neurologic illness (10.2%), lung disease (5.6%) and
heart disease (4.6%), with loss of autonomy, impaired quality of life and
loss of dignity the most common reasons reported by clinicians for patients
who pursue medical aid-in-dying. Ages of all participants over the time
periods ranged from 20 to 102, and participation was nearly equally split
between males and females.
“Among patients who ingested the lethal drugs and were evaluable for
complications, only 4% experienced complications, the most common being
difficulty ingesting or regurgitation of the lethal drug,” according to the
study, published 9 Aug. 2019 in JAMA Network Open. “Short median times to
unconsciousness and death prevent undue and lengthy suffering and reflect
the efficacy of drugs used in (medical aid-in-dying).”
