Physician-assisted suicide in Oregon: A medical perspective

Issues in Law and Medicine

Volumn 24, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 121-145

  Hendin, Herbert ^a,b   Foley, Kathleen ^c,d,e  

^a Suicide Prevention International ^*

^b NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE   (United States)

^c MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER   (United States)

^d WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE   (United States)

^e International Palliative Care Initiative of the Open Society Institute

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 57749090153     PISSN: 87568160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (130)

1. Oregon Death with Dignity Act, OR. REV. STAT. §§ 127.800-.897 (1997).
2. Kathleen Foley & Herbert Hendin, The Oregon Experiment, in THE CASE AGAINST ASSISTED SUICIDE: FOR THE RIGHT TO END-OF-LIFE CARE 144, 144-45 (Kathleen Foley & Herbert Hendin eds., 2004).
3. FAQs about the Death With Dignity Act, http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ ph/pas/faqs.shtml (last visited Apr. 3, 2008).
4. Amy D. Sullivan et al., Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon - The Second Year, NEW ENG. J. MED. 598 (2000).
5. Two of the cases were first published in our 2002 book, THE CASE AGAINST ASSISTED SUICIDE: FOR THE RIGHT TO END-OF-LIFE CARE, supra note 2, copyright © 2002 by The Johns Hopkins University Press. They are reprinted in modified form with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press.
6. We have reprinted with permission modified portions of Kathleen Foley & Herbert Hendin, The Oregon Report: Don't Ash, Don't Tell, HASTINGS CENTER REP., May-Jun. 1999, at 37, copyright © 1999 by The Hastings Center.
7. Excerpts from the original article Herbert Hendin, Kathleen Foley & Margot White, Physician-Assisted Suicide: Reflections on Oregon's First Case, 14 ISSUES IN LAW & MED. 243 (1998) are reprinted with permission. Copyright © 1998 by the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent & Disabled, Inc.
8. Herbert Hendin et al., Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Netherlands: Lessons From the Dutch, 277 JAMA 1720, 1720-22 (1997).
9. Paul B. Bascom & Susan W. Tolle, Responding to Requests for Physician Assisted-Suicide: "These Are Uncharted Waters for Both of Us. . . .", 288 JAMA 91, 91-97 (2002);
10. Diane E. Meier, Op-Ed., A Change of Heart on Assisted Suicide, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 24, 1998, at A27.
11. Part I reprints modified versions of our previous work. Foley & Hendin, supra note 2, at 146-50; Foley & Hendin, supra note 5, at 38, 40-41; Hendin et al., supra note 5, at 244-48. See supra note 5 for copyright information.
12. Diane M. Gianelli, Praise, Criticism Follow Oregon's First Reported Assisted Suicides, AM. MED. NEWS, APR. 13, 1998, at 1.
13. Erin Hoover & Gail K. Hill, Two Die Using Suicide Law, OREGONIAN, Mar. 26, 1998, at AO1.
14. Gianelli, supra note 9.
15. Id.
16. Id.
17. After the announcement of what was thought to be the first case of assisted suicide in Oregon, the Hemlock Society in Oregon announced that since the Oregon law had gone into effect it had helped arrange an even earlier assisted suicide at some unspecified date for another patient with cancer. Erin Hoover, Two Deaths Add New Angle to Debate, OREGONIAN, Mar. 27, 1998, at A01.
18. William Claiborne, In Oregon, Suicide Option Brings a Kinder Care, WASH. POST, Apr. 29, 1998, at A01.
19. Hendin et al., supra note 5, at 247.
20. Letter from Peter Reagan to Kathleen Foley (Mar. 23, 1999) (on file with author).
21. Doctor & Patient: A Conversation on Suicide, OREGONIAN, Mar. 27, 1998, at A18.
22. See id.
23. Hoover, supra note 14.
24. Peter Reagan, Helen, 353 LANCET 1265, 1266 (1999).
25. Letter from William Petty to the New England Journal of Medicine (Apr. 30, 2007) (on file with Physicians for Compassionate Care), available at http://www.pccef org/articles/art52.htm.
26. Erik K. Fromme et al., Increased Family Reports of Pain or Distress in Dying Oregonians: 1996 to 2002, 7 J. PALLIATIVE MED. 431 (2004).
27. Linda Ganzini et al., Physicians' Experiences with the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, 342 NEW ENG. J. MED. 557, 557 (2000).
28. Susan Tolle & Kathleen Haley, Pain Management in the Dying . . . Successes and Concerns, BME REP. (Or. Bd. of Med. Exam'rs, Portland, Or.), Fall 1998, at 1, 4;
29. see also Susan W. Tolle & Susan E. Hickman, Don't Prescribe Less - Chart Better, BME REP. (Or. Bd. of Med. Exam'rs, Portland, Or.), Winter-Spring 2002, at 1, 4.
30. LAST ACTS, MEANS TO A BETTER END: A REPORT ON DYING IN AMERICAN TODAY 10-42 (2002), available at http://www.rwjf.org/files/ publications/other/meansbetterend.pdf.
31. Ganzini et al., supra note 24, at 559-60.
32. Harvey M. Chochinov et al., Depression, Hopelessness, and Suicidal Ideation in the Terminally Ill, 39 PSYCHOSOMATICS 366 (1998). Part II reprints modified versions of our previous work. Foley & Hendin, supra note 2, at 150-52, 170-71; Foley & Hendin, supra note 5, at 39-40; Hendin et al., supra note 5, at 251-52. See supra note 5 for copyright information.
33. N. Gregory Hamilton, Oregon's Culture of Silence, in THE CASE AGAINST ASSISTED SUICIDE: FOR THE RIGHT TO END-OF-LIFE CARE, supra note 2, at 175, 188.
34. Herbert Hendin & Gerald Klerman, Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Dangers of Legalization, 150 AM. J. PSYCHIATRY 143, 144 (1993).
35. George E. Murphy, The Physician's Responsibility for Suicide. II. Errors of Omission, 82 ANNALS INTERNAL MED. 305 (1975).
36. TASK FORCE TO IMPROVE THE CARE OF TERMINALLY-ILL OREGONIANS, THE OREGON DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT: A GUIDEBOOK FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS 31 (Kathleen Haley & Melinda Lee eds., 1st ed. 1998) [hereinafter OREGON GUIDEBOOK].
37. OR. DEP'T OF HUMAN SERVS., NINTH ANNUAL REPORT ON OREGON'S DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT tbl. 1 (2007), http://www.oregon.gov/ DHS/ph/pas/docs/yr9-tbl-1.pdf [hereinafter NINTH ANNUAL REPORT];
38. OFFICE OF DISEASE PREVENTION & EPIDEMIOLOGY, DEP'T OF HUMAN SERVS., EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT ON OREGON'S DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT tbl. 4 (2006), available at http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/pb/pas/docs/year8.pdf [hereinafter EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT].
39. Bill Kettler, 'We Knew She Would Do It': Stricken by ALS, Joan Lucas Decides to Die - Then Acts, MEDFORD MAIL TRIB., June 25, 2000, at 8A.
40. Id.
41. Id.
42. Linda Ganzini et al., Attitudes of Oregon Psychiatrists Toward Physician-Assisted Suicide, 153 AM. J. PSYCHIATRY 1469, 1473 (1996).
43. See Oregon Death with Dignity Act, OR. REV. STAT. §§ 127.815, .820, .830 (1997).
44. Part III reprints modified versions of our previous work. Foley & Hendin, supra note 2, at 156-59, Hendin et al., supra note 5, at 255-56. See supra note 5 for copyright information.
45. Erin Hoover Barnett, A Family Struggle: Is Mom Capable of Choosing to Die, OREGONIAN, Oct. 17, 1999, at G01.
46. Id.
47. Id.
48. Id.
49. Id.
50. Id.
51. Id.
52. David Reinhard, Editorial, In the Dark Shadows of Measure 16, OREGONIAN, Oct. 31, 1999, at D05.
53. See Pamela J. Miller et al., Conversations at the End of Life: The Challenge to Support Patients Who Consider Death with Dignity in Oregon, J. SOC. WORK END-OF-LIFE & PALLIATIVE CARE, Nov. 2006, at 37-38.
54. Oregon Death with Dignity Act, OR. REV. STAT. § 127.835 (1997).
55. Part IV reprints modified versions of our previous work. Foley & Hendin, supra note 2, at 159-61, Hendin et al., supra note 5, at 264-66. See supra note 5 for copyright information.
56. OR. REV. STAT. § 127.885(1)-(3).
57. WAYNE R. LAFAVE, 2 SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW § 15.3(a), at 514-15 (2d ed. 2003).
58. DAN B. DOBBS, THE LAW OF TORTS § 243, at 635 (2000).
59. Memorandum from Sharon Rice, Manager, Registration Unit Center for Health Statistics, to County Vital Records Registrars and Deputies (Dec. 12, 1997), reprinted in Confidentiality of Death Certificates, 14 ISSUES IN LAW & MED. 333, 333 (1998).
60. Id. at 334.
61. OR. REV. STAT. § 127.865(2).
62. DAVID JEFFREY, PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE V PALLIATIVE CARE: A TALE OF TWO CITIES (2007), available at http://www.pccef.org/articles/ PCCEF_June07_posting.pdf.
63. Steven J. Ziegler & Georg Bosshard, Role of Non-governmental Organisations in Physician Assisted Suicide, 334 BRIT. MED. J. 295, 297 (2007)
64. (citing SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE ASSISTED DYING FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL BILL, REPORT, Vol. II: Evidence, 2005, H.L. 86-II).
65. George Eighmey, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act: Health Care Professionals Speak Out on Its Impact, Remarks at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Council on Licensure, Enforcement, and Regulation (Sept. 3, 1999), quoted in Hamilton, supra note 29, at 184.
66. Id. (ellipses in original).
67. Id. at 184-85 (fourth alteration in original).
68. Id. at 185 (alteration in original).
69. N. Gregory Hamilton & Catherine A. Hamilton, Competing Paradigms of Responses to Assisted Suicide Requests in Oregon, 162 AM. J. PSYCHIATRY 1060 (2005).
70. Id. at 1060.
71. E.g., William Breitbart et al., Depression, Hopelessness, and Desire for Hastened Death in Terminally Ill Patients With Cancer, 284 JAMA 2907, 2910 (2000).
72. Herbert Hendin, Suicide, Assisted Suicide, and Euthanasia, in THE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL GUIDE TO SUICIDE ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION 540, 553 (Douglas G. Jacobs ed., 1999);
73. see Herbert Hendin et al., The Role of Intense Affective States in Signaling a Suicide Crisis, 195 J. NERVOUS & MENTAL DISEASE 363 (2007).
74. OREGON GUIDEBOOK, supra note 32, at 30.
75. Id. at 31.
76. Linda Ganzini et al., Evaluation of Competence to Consent to Assisted Suicide: Views of Forensic Psychiatrists, 157 AM. J. PSYCHIATRY 595, 598 (2000) (emphasis added); see also Ganzini et al., supra note 37.
77. Hamilton & Hamilton, supra note 63, at 1061-65.
78. Id. at 1061.
79. Id.
80. Id.
81. Id.
82. Id. at 1063.
83. Id.
84. Id. at 1062.
85. Id.
86. Id. at 1063.
87. Id.
88. Id.
89. Id.
90. Id.
91. See Joanne Lynn et al., Prognoses of Seriously Ill Hospitalized Patients on the Days Before Death: Implications for Patient Care and Public Policy, 5 NEW HORIZONS 56 (1997).
92. Melinda A. Lee et al., Legalizing Assisted Suicide - Views of Physicians in Oregon, 334 NEW ENG. J. MED. 310, 312 (1996).
93. NINTH ANNUAL REPORT, supra note 33, http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/year9.pdf.
94. Id. Section VI.B reprints modified versions of our previous work. Foley & Hendin, supra note 2, at 154. See supra note 5 for copyright information.
95. J. Andrew Billings & Susan D. Block, Slow Euthanasia, J. PALLIATIVE CARE, Winter 1996, at 21, 21.
96. See Balfour M. Mount, Morphine Drips, Terminal Sedation, and Slow Euthanasia: Definitions and Facts, Not Anecdotes, J. PALLIATIVE CARE, Winter 1996, at 31;
97. Russell K. Portenoy, Morphine Infusions at the End of Life: The Pitfalls in Reasoning from Anecdote, J. PALLIATIVE CARE, Winter 1996, at 44.
98. Nat'l Ethics Comm., Veterans Health Admin., The Ethics of Palliative Sedation as a Therapy of Last Resort, AM. J. HOSPICE & PALLIATIVE CARE, Dec.-Jan. 2007, at 483, 488.
99. Section VII.A reprints modified versions of our previous work. Kathleen Foley, Compassionate Care, Not Assisted Suicide, in THE CASE AGAINST ASSISTED SUICIDE: FOR THE RIGHT TO END-OF-LIFE CARE, supra note 2, at 293, 304-06, 311. See supra note 5 for copyright information.
100. See Frank J. Brescia et al., Pain, Opioid Use, and Survival in Hospitalized Patients With Advanced Cancer, 10 J. CLINICAL ONCOLOGY 149 (1992) (reporting that increased use of pain medication for cancer patients does not affect the relative risk of survival significantly more than other variables do).
101. William C. Wilson et al., Ordering and Administration of Sedatives and Analgesics During the Withholding and Withdrawal of Life Support From Critically Ill Patients, 267 JAMA 949, 952-53 (1992).
102. Russell K. Portenoy et al., Determinants of the Willingness to Endorse Assisted Suicide: A Survey of Physicians, Nurses, and Social Workers, 38 PSYCHOSOMATICS 277, 284-85 (1997).
103. See Zbigniew Zylicz, Letter, Euthanasia, 338 LANCET 1150, 1150 (1991);
104. Zbigniew Zylicz, Hospice in Holland: The Story Behind the Blank Spot, AM. J. HOSPICE & PALLIATIVE CARE, July-Aug. 1993, at 30, 34 (1993).
105. Agnes van der Heide et al., End-of-Life Practices in the Netherlands Under the Euthanasia Act, 356 NEW ENG. J. MED. 1957 (2007).
106. Margriet Oostveen, Spijt: Voorvechters van de euthanasieprahtijk bezinnen zich [Regrets: Proponents of euthanasia reorient themselves], NRC HANDELSBLAD (Neth.), Nov. 10, 2001, at Z1.
107. Linda Ganzini et al., Oregon Physicians' Perceptions of Patients Who Request Assisted Suicide and Their Families, 6 J. PALLIATIVE MEDICINE 381, 382 (2003).
108. Hendin, supra note 66, at 542.
109. NINTH ANNUAL REPORT, supra note 33, http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/year9.pdf.
110. Prescription History - Oregon Death With Dignity Act, http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/prescriptionhistory.pdf.
111. NINTH ANNUAL REPORT, supra note 33, http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/year9.pdf.
112. Prescription History - Oregon Death With Dignity Act, supra note 100.
113. Arthur E. Chin et al., Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon - The First Year's Experience, 340 NEW ENG. J. MED. 577, 579 (1999).
114. NINTH ANNUAL REPORT, supra note 33, http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/year9.pdf.
115. Linda O. Prager, Details Emerge on Oregon's First Assisted Suicides, AM. MED. NEWS, Sept. 7, 1998, at 10.
116. Foley & Hendin, supra note 2, at 162.
117. Chin et al., supra note 103, at 582.
118. Fromme et al., supra note 23; Linda Ganzini et al., Nurses' Experiences with Hospice Patients Who Refuse Food and Fluids to Hasten Death, 349 NEW ENG. J. MED. 359 (2003);
119. Helene Starks et al., Family Member Involvement in Hastened Death, 31 DEATH STUD. 105 (2007); JEFFREY, supra note 57.
120. ARTHUR E. CHIN ET AL., OR. DEPT. OF HUMAN RES., OREGON'S DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT: THE FIRST YEAR'S EXPERIENCE 3 (1999), available at http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/ docs/year1.pdf.
121. OFFICE OF DISEASE PREVENTION & EPIDEMIOLOGY, OR. DEP'T OF HUMAN SERVS., SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT ON OREGON'S DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT 14 (2005), available at http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/docs/year7.pdf.
122. EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT, supra note 33, at 13.
123. JEFFREY supra note 57.
124. AMY D. SULLIVAN ET AL., OR. DEP'T OF HUMAN SERVS., OREGON'S DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT: THE SECOND YEAR'S EXPERIENCE 10 (2000), available at http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/ docs/year2.pdf.
125. Int'l Task Force on Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Oregon Plays Word Games with Assisted Suicide, UPDATE, Vol. 20, No. 5 (2006), available at http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/iua39.htm.
126. Id.
127. Id.
128. Id.
129. Derek Humphry, Letter to the Editor, Stick to Plain English, REG.-GUARD (Eugene, Or.), Nov. 7, 2006, at A8.
130. Foley & Hendin, supra note 2, at 174.