Trailblazing Oregon becomes first suicide state

‘The Oregon Trail’ to legalize doctor-assisted suicide there prominently included anti-Catholicism

By Ann Carey

In a hotly contested Nov. 4 referendum marked by anti-Catholicism, voters in Oregon refused by a margin of 60-40 percent to repeal a 1994 state law permitting physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to patients who wish to commit suicide.

"Oregon has become the first jurisdiction in the world to fully embrace the culture of death," said Robert Castagna, executive director and general counsel for the Oregon Catholic Conference.

"Personal autonomy and choice rose as a supreme value . . . at the expense of values such as family, community and common good."

However, many experts predict that Oregon’s so-called Death With Dignity Act will face immediate court challenges that could hold up the law for years.

Additionally, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has entered the debate with an opinion that any physician who prescribes a lethal dose of medication violates the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Thus, any doctor who writes a suicide prescription could lose the right to prescribe most drugs, a major obstacle to the ability to practice medicine.

This latest twist involving the DEA is just one of the many bizarre facets of Oregon’s suicide referendum, dubbed "The Oregon Trail" in some headlines.

Two days after the vote, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy approved an emergency rule to require that doctors specify on the prescription that the drug is for suicide.

In this way, a pharmacist who has an ethical objection may choose not to fill the prescription; conversely, pharmacists could thus advise patients about how to ingest their suicide drugs effectively so they would not fall asleep before consuming a lethal amount.

Also, in the days following the referendum, a special session of the Oregon legislature was proposed to amend the law. One lawmaker even demonstrated that "The Oregon Trail" is a very slippery slope by discussing an amendment to allow lethal injections in addition to prescribed drugs.

The rationale behind this proposal is the fear that patients might not die from the barbiturate overdose and would need to be finished off "humanely."

But even Barbara Lee, leader of Oregon Right to Die, recognized that lethal injections would move the whole issue from assisted suicide to euthanasia, a concept not supported by Oregon voters in a pre-election poll.

Assisted suicide was first approved in Oregon in a 1994 referendum by a narrow 51-49 percent vote.

The Death With Dignity Act allows physicians to prescribe a deadly dose of drugs to a terminally ill patient who puts the request in writing. Two doctors must certify that the patient has less than six months to live and is mentally competent.

But the Death With Dignity Act never went into effect. A District Court judge in Eugene, Ore., granted an injunction based on a lawsuit that argued the law violated the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, since it had inadequate safeguards to protect terminally ill patients from being pressured into assisted suicide.

That decision subsequently was appealed to a higher court, which did not rule on the merits of the case, but rather determined that the muscular-dystrophy patient and two doctors bringing the original suit did not have "standing" — that is, they did not show that they were in immediate danger of suffering injury.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a further appeal, thus setting the stage for lifting the three-year injunction.

In the meantime, concern over the law had grown, particularly among Oregon’s medical community, and the legislature decided to put the matter up for vote again in this year’s referendum.

Ironically, word reached Oregon on Election Day that the injunction against the 1994 Death With Dignity Act was lifted, so the law thus went into effect.

However, since patients must wait 15 days to obtain a lethal prescription, legal issues may intervene before the first lawful assisted suicide takes place.

Another lawsuit likely will be filed quickly, this time by plaintiffs more apt to have "standing," so the case could be decided on its merits.

In the referendum campaign, the Catholic Church was only one member of a broad-based national coalition that supported repeal of the assisted-suicide law.

That coalition included groups such as the American Medical Association, the Salvation Army and National Right to Life, as well as Lutheran, Baptist and Mormon organizations.

Nevertheless, suicide proponents appealed to anti-religion sentiments to sway voters and targeted the Catholic Church. Though Catholics represent only 10 percent of the Oregon population, Oregon is one of the most unchurched states in the nation, and so Catholics are the single-largest religious group, followed by the Mormons.

During the campaign, it was readily apparent which faith was the target of the "Don’t Let ’Em Shove Their Religion Down Your Throats Committee."

On a radio talk show in Portland, the host and several callers agreed that the Catholic Church should be considered a "foreign power" and thus prohibited from contributing to state campaigns. Lee even referred to the Church as "a political machine, driven by dogma."

The Oregonian newspaper in Portland reported that more than $1.5 million for the campaign came from Church-affiliated health care organizations and Catholic groups around the country.

Even though Oregon Right to Die collected a quarter of a million dollars from New York businessman George Soros, as well as donations from out-of-state chapters of the Hemlock Society (which is headquartered in Oregon), there apparently was a voter backlash against the involvement of the Church and other out-of-state groups.

James Moore, a political-science professor at the University of Portland, told Our Sunday Visitor that Oregon voters are notoriously independent, which made for an "absolutely huge" backlash.

"If you can peg something as an outside group coming into our political system, they can go down to defeat pretty quickly," he said.

But Richard Doerflinger, associate director for policy development at the U.S. bishops’ pro-life office, told Our Sunday Visitor that the Church had to take a strong stand in Oregon to point out the dangers of the law and the risk to weak and powerless persons.

"I think this was actually one of the Church’s finest hours," Doerflinger said. "Dioceses and Catholic hospitals, Catholic organizations all over the country, lent their support to this campaign because of the national importance of Oregon’s decision."

Doerflinger does not expect other states to imitate Oregon’s action, however.

After the law was first passed in 1994, right-to-die advocates predicted that other states would follow suit, but this did not happen. In fact, similar bills in several other states didn’t even make it out of committee.

Doerflinger noted that the Netherlands has permitted — though not legalized — assisted suicide for 20 years, and that grisly example has served to "inoculate" other countries in Europe against adopting the practice.

If the Oregon Death With Dignity Act survives legal challenges, the perils of "The Oregon Trail" will become abundantly clear.

"If Oregon wants to be the object lesson for this continent, it’s tragic, but it might help to concentrate the minds of everyone else," Doerflinger said. "I think the law is fraught with the opportunity for abuse and coercion. It’s a very dangerous policy they’ve chosen."

Carey is a senior correspondent for Our Sunday Visitor

Copyright Our Sunday Visitor, 1997; from the 11-23-97 edition

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