[lbo-talk] Re: Oregon's health care proposal

Alex zap_path at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 6 15:36:46 PDT 2005


Doug wrote:

What about Oregon's euthanasia law? Do people come to Oregon to die?

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I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. There are national organizations available to people interested in suicide drugs. Oregon's law means that people can take suicide drugs legally without their family being investigated for murder and so on. Although the law enjoys significant public support (both in Oregon and nationally), very few people actually use it.

For example, see http://www.oregonlive.com/special/assisted_suicide/index.ssf?/special/oregonian/suicide/031105.html In seven years of the law, only 208 people have used the prescribed drugs. A similar number have received the drugs, but did not take them. I don't have any information on if anyone traveled to Oregon for the law. Certainly, the number is less than 208 in seven years.

In addition to the small numbers involved, there wouldn't really be any social cost if people did travel to Oregon for an assisted suicide.

-Alex

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