A push to increase access to medically assisted dying under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act will get a public hearing Monday after lawmakers toned down provisions that sparked controversy.
This time, the influential Oregon Medical Association won’t oppose the amended bill, which drew heavy fire when it was introduced in March.
“We will be neutral,” said Courtni Dresser, the OMA’s vice president of government relations, on Wednesday. The medical group had strongly opposed the initial bill, which was launched by supporters of the law to increase access to assisted dying for people who are terminally ill.
The initial bill would have slashed the mandatory waiting period from 15 days to just 48 hours before a patient could obtain a prescribed medication. Moreover, it would have allowed the procedure to occur under the supervision of physician assistants or nurse practitioners — not a doctor, as currently required.
The medical association had testified that the changes were dangerous and removed important safeguards, pushing Oregon closer to legalized “euthanasia.”
In response to such concerns, the language in the current bill has been changed so that only physicians can oversee the process. Also, the minimum waiting period before a patient can end their life has been changed from the proposed 48 hours to seven days, cutting the current wait by about half.
“We will keep our eye on it,” Dresser said, acknowledging that the bill is “not a perfect policy.”
Soon after the hearing was scheduled, a new round of testimony from opponents around the country began flowing into the Legislative website. Many cited Christian beliefs. Some Oregon doctors have also weighed in against the bill, as has the Oregon Association of Home Care. The group’s Iria Nishimura noted that it makes all hospice providers inform patients about the availability of assisted-dying, which she said “would have detrimental and far-reaching consequences” on end-of-life care.
Oregon is one of 11 states or jurisdictions that allow some form of physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients, and one of the few that doesn’t require patients to be residents. Some feared the end of a residency requirement would lead to a flood of non-Oregonians coming to the state to end their lives, but results for the last two years show that hasn’t happened, according to the Oregon Health Authority’s 2024 Death With Dignity Act report.
More people than ever — 607 — requested prescribed, lethal medications in Oregon last year, but 376 actually died, a slight decline from 2023.
According to the report, those who died under the law last year were typically in their mid-70s, White, and had at least some college education, and most had been diagnosed with serious illnesses, such as cancer or Lou Gehrig’s disease. They said they feared losing their autonomy and no longer being able to experience activities that gave them pleasure. And about 9 percent, a new high, cited the financial implications of medical treatment in requesting lethal medication. None were uninsured.
