Ten years later, Oregon's is only U.S. law allowing assisted suicide

Published: 2007-10-12

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Ten years after Oregon adopted the nation's first bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide, no other state has passed a similar law, despite attempts by several legislatures or voter initiatives. But both supporters and opponents of the Death With Dignity Act predicted efforts to pass such laws will continue, especially as more aging baby boomers deal with fatal diseases. The Death With Dignity Act allows terminally ill people to obtain lethal doses of prescription drugs from their doctors to self-administer. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 upheld lower court rulings that said the law is constitutional, sidelining an attempt by the U.S. attorney general to use drug-control laws to prosecute physicians who prescribe lethal doses of federally controlled drugs. Dr. Leon Kass, former chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics and now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said at an Oct. 10 forum in Washington marking the law's anniversary that pressure to pass more such laws will escalate as more baby boomers pass age 65. Barbara Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, a hybrid of two organizations that pushed to pass the Oregon law, said efforts to pass similar laws in other states were blocked by some of the "largest, most powerful social organizations in the world," and acknowledged that the "political and lobbying forces against it are enormous." The anniversary event was hosted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

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