The number of people who used Oregon’s assisted-suicide law to die reached its all-time high in 2007. At the same time, those who received the legal, lethal prescriptions but have not used them yet is on the increase.

Not one of the patients who died was first referred for psychological or psychiatric treatment.

Oregon health officials released their tenth annual report on assisted suicide in the state, showing that 49 people died using the law last year. That’s up from 46 in 2006. Since the controversial Oregon law took effect in 1997, 341 patients have used it to kill themselves.

The Catholic Church, disability groups and pro-life advocates have long opposed the law, saying it pressures the sick and elderly to kill themselves and devalues the life of sick and disabled citizens.

In the most significant statistical change, the report showed 85 people received the drugs in 2007, an increase of 20 from 2006. Three of the people who killed themselves in 2007 received the prescription in 2006.

One national euthanasia opponent says she’s concerned doctors don’t do more to help patients address the mental health issues that likely prompt them to consider suicide.

“During 2007, not one patient who died under Oregon’s assisted suicide law was referred for psychiatric or psychological evaluation before receiving the prescription for lethal drugs,” said Rita Marker, of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.

Marker also echoed a long-time criticism of the state report — it relies entirely on the doctors who collaborate in assisted suicide.

There are no case reports connected to the annual document and there is no guarantee that all the cases have been reported.

Physicians for Compassionate Care, a Portland-based medical group that opposes assisted suicide, says it is a concern that physicians were present at the time the patient ingested drugs in only 11 of the 49 deaths. That may mean there could have been complications beyond the three reported for the year.

The doctors’ group also points out that the median duration of the doctor-patient relationship in the suicide deaths was eight weeks.

“Many of these patients are receiving prescriptions from doctors that are new to them, rather than from their usual doctor,” said Physicians for Compassionate Care.

As usual, the most frequently mentioned end-of-life concern that led to assisted suicide was loss of autonomy, cited by every patient who died. Second was decreased ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable and loss of dignity, both at 86 percent.

In a related development, a debate on euthanasia has been sparked in France by the death of a woman who pressed for a law there to legalize assisted suicide. Chantal Sebire wanted help to take her own life because she had a rare tumor that was ravaging her face. Sebire died suddenly last week, two days following a French court’s decision that she could not have a physician prescribe her a lethal dose of drugs.

The circumstances of Sebire’s death are unknown. Police are investigating.
Justice Minister Rachida Dati told the Associated Press that Sebire’s death raises “a legitimate demand” for assisted suicide. He says the law may need to be re-evaluated. Other government officials disagree.

Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands and Belgium. Switzerland allows assisted suicide, and Luxembourg has given initial approval to an assisted suicide bill.
Last year, during a trial of several French healthworkers on charges of killing patients, more than 2,000 doctors and nurses signed a petition saying they had also engaged in euthanasia.