Doctor discusses frightening reality of assisted suicide in Oregon

Published: 2004-05-25

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) -- Dr. William Toffler is battling what he considers an infectious disease that has swept through his home state of Oregon, a disease he says requires a reassessment of how compassionate care of people at the end of life is defined. His battle has been shaped by the passage in October 1997 of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which made physician-assisted suicide a legal medical option for terminally ill Oregon residents. Toffler, a physician who is director of the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health and Sciences University, was in Sacramento recently to speak about end-of-life issues at the diocesan pastoral center. "What's been sold to the Oregon populace is really dispassion. Whether you live or die is your decision. It really doesn't matter to me," said Toffler during an interview with the Catholic Herald, Sacramento diocesan newspaper. "We need to say killing people for whatever utilitarian purpose is a bad idea." Co-opting terms such as "compassionate" and "death with dignity" to describe end-of-life issues is both inaccurate and demeaning, he explained.

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