Oregon ends residency rule for medically assisted suicide
Source: Associated Press
Oregon will no longer require people to be residents of the state to use its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication, after a lawsuit challenged the requirement as unconstitutional.
In a settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday, the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Medical Board agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement and to ask the Legislature to remove it from the law.
Advocates said they would use the settlement to press the eight other states and Washington, D.C., with medically assisted suicide laws to drop their residency requirements as well.
This requirement was both discriminatory and profoundly unfair to dying patients at the most critical time of their life, said Kevin Diaz, an attorney with Compassion & Choices, the national advocacy group that sued over Oregons requirement.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-health-oregon-lawsuits-portland-3cf31cb519d84a47e2d3cb70e8f0bce7
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Deuxcents
(15,785 posts)Fat chance Florida could be so compassionate.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)Not only can you end a life that's turned unendurable with no hope of ever getting better, you can opt for being composted by a green funeral company afterward. A few years later, nothing is left but compost to make someone's garden grow.
wackadoo wabbit
(1,160 posts)expressed a desire for assisted suicide if/when they were no longer mentally competent to also receive lethal medication, then that would be even better news.
in2herbs
(2,942 posts)your dementia (certified by your doctor) your legal representative can admit you to hospice based on your wishes and once in hospice you get only pain relief.
Note: meant to write alzheimers not dementia.
DoBotherMe
(2,339 posts)Karma13612
(4,527 posts)SKKY
(11,772 posts)...but I'm very glad it is an option. Now, if they could just hurry up and build the suicide rollercoaster, that would be awesome!
TexasBushwhacker
(20,044 posts)but do not go through with it. I think just knowing that you CAN get suicide assistance is a tremendous comfort.
Delphinus
(11,808 posts)It's been a few years since I've attended an event from Compassionate Choices, but I learned that knowing it is available to you is so helpful.
sybylla
(8,464 posts)Once she entered hospice, she was drugged to the point that she couldn't function, but the drugs didn't stop the pain. As one of her 24 hour care-givers for the month before she passed, I know that for a fact.
She knew she was dealing with heart failure for 15 months. Assisted suicide could have been a better option for her. What difference did 9 days of pain and unconsciousness mean to her life? Why was that necessary? Neither she nor her family had a good opportunity to say good-bye, as she sunk into pain management so quickly after they took away all her life-sustaining medications.
We treat dogs better than that.
SKKY
(11,772 posts)...assisted suicide route. I don't mind going through the pain, but I would never want to put my family through the pain of having to watch me die.
Roisin Ni Fiachra
(2,574 posts)and suffering until death is their gaaaawd's will.
How dare those evil, godless libruls in Oregon defy the christo-fascist gawd by offering those suffering in agony with a terminal illness the choice to end their suffering with dignity? It's un-'murican! It's a clear violation of their religious freedumb!
Bitter