Source: Associated Press Pubdate: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 Author: William McCall EIGHT DIE FROM PILLS PRESCRIBED UNDER OREGON'S ASSISTED-SUICIDE LAW PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Eight people have died with help from their doctors under the nation's only assisted-suicide law, which so far has withstood challenges in federal courts and opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, the American Medical Association and Congress. The Oregon Health Division released its first official figures Tuesday on deaths under the law, first approved by Oregon voters in 1994 and reaffirmed by voters last November. Unknown to voters, the law went into effect the month before after a long federal court battle. Ten terminally ill people obtained lethal prescriptions from their physicians under the Oregon law, but two died from their illnesses without resorting to the drugs, said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, an epidemiologist with the division. "We found that two people chose not to take their medication even though they had it," Hedberg said. The law allows a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to hasten the death of a terminally ill patient. It sets up several safeguards to make sure the patient is sane, has less than six months to live, has a terminal diagnosis and is not forced to ingest the lethal medication. The patient must request the drugs verbally and in writing. The assisted-suicide law required the Health Division to set up a reporting system for physicians and to publish an annual statistical report, but it does not act as a regulatory agency, she said. The state waited until it had recorded 10 deaths under the law before announcing them as a way of protecting the privacy of patients and their families, Hedberg said Otherwise, "it would have been too easy to identify an individual," she said. Barbara Coombs Lee, who led the Oregon campaign for the law, welcomed the statistics, saying they showed that "dire predictions" of botched suicides and lingering deaths have proved false. "This report clearly shows that the fears of our opponents were unfounded and designed to scare Oregonians," said Coombs Lee, who is executive director of Compassion in Dying. But a spokesman for the Catholic Church called the announcement "tragic" and accused the nine doctors involved of killing their patients "in violation of medical ethics." "I'm terribly saddened," said Bob Castagna, executive director of the Oregon Catholic Conference. "We pray for the souls of the deceased. We also pray for the physicians and others who assisted in these suicides that they may reconsider their professional ethics." The leader of a group of doctors opposed to assisted suicide said the announcement "devalues and stigmatizes everyone labeled as terminally ill." Dr. N. Gregory Hamilton, president of Physicians for Compassionate Care, urged increased efforts to improve end-of-life care for patients suffering from a terminal disease. Castagna said the Oregon Catholic Conference would urge Congress "to act expeditiously to pass legislation to confirm a national standard to prohibit physician assisted suicide." A bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., could block the Oregon law by prohibiting doctors from prescribing "controlled substances" -- dangerous narcotics and barbiturates regulated by the federal government -- for the purpose of assisting suicide. The bill, which is being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee, is supported by committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, but Attorney General Janet Reno ruled in June that the federal Controlled Substances Act did not override Oregon law. But Barbara Oskamp of West Linn, who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, said she wishes the church would stop meddling with a law she said brings her a sense of comfort and relief. "I don't like it when religion tries to forces its viewpoint on me," Oskamp said. "This law has brought me a great sense of relief and a feeling that I can control my life." Coombs Lee noted that the average age of the 10 people who requested lethal prescriptions was 71, and nine were dying of cancer. One suffered from heart problems. "All of them were older patients facing difficult deaths," Coombs Lee said. "People are aware of the extraordinary debilitation and deterioration awaiting them." She said that nearly 24,000 deaths have been reported in Oregon since the law was reaffirmed by voters last year, and the eight assisted suicides under the law account for less than 0.03 percent of the total deaths. "This is an extremely small number," Coombs Lee said. The state report said the 10 people who were given lethal prescriptions was evenly divided between men and women, and half were from the Portland area. The report said the number of days between obtaining the lethal drugs and taking them ranged from the same day to 16 days with an average of two days. The average time of death was 40 minutes after taking the drugs. The two who died of their illnesses lived an average of 10.5 days after obtaining the drugs. In March, two people died under the state's law. A third person was reported to have died under the law in May. And in June, a Salem onocologist, Dr. Peter Rasmussen, said he had helped a terminally ill patient die. Few details of the deaths were released. In one of the March cases, a grandmother in her mid-80s battling breast cancer sought assistance from Compassion in Dying, an advocacy organization. A day after she died, the group released a tape recording the woman made before she died. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene ruled the law unconstitutional in 1995, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision last year and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. Advocates of the Oregon law said in April that 42 people had requested physician-assisted suicide since the law took effect, but that many were not terminally ill or were not residents of Oregon. Others later changed their minds and opted for hospice care. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry