Death With Dignity: Oregon Goes Up Against Bush

Choosing how and when we want to die seems like a basic human right but the Bush Administration is fighting Oregon's Death with Dignity law. Please read article below:


Julie McMurchie holds a photo of her mother, Peggy Sutherland, at her home in a Saturday, Aug. 27, 2005 photo, in Portland, Ore. Sutherland took her own life under Oregon's Death With Dignity law, one-of-a-kind legislation enacted in 1997 that allows terminally ill patients to obtain lethal doses of medication from their doctors. The Bush administration is challenging the measure, arguing that hastening someone's death is an improper use of medication and thus violates federal drug laws. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)



Death With Dignity Law Headed to Supreme Court
By BRAD CAIN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. Sep 28, 2005 — The Bush administration is challenging Oregon's assisted suicide law, arguing that hastening someone's death is an improper use of medication and thus violates federal drug laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case on Oct. 5. Supporters of the assisted suicide law say a favorable high court ruling could lead other states to follow Oregon's lead.

Oregonians approved the law in two separate votes, and many have come to see it as part of their state's identity something that sets them apart from the rest of the nation.

Still, only a tiny portion of terminally ill Oregonians have used the law to take their lives 208 people, representing about one in 1,000 deaths.

Take the case of Julie McMurchie's family. She and her four siblings watched as their 68-year-old mother, Peggy Sutherland, lifted a lethal dose of barbiturates to her lips.

It was difficult for them to accept that their mother was about to die, McMurchie said. But Sutherland was in a long and painful struggle with lung cancer, and her children supported her decision to end her life, McMurchie said.

"We were all hugging and kissing her and telling her it was OK to let go," McMurchie said. "Mom held up the glass of medication and said, `I don't think anyone understands how much pain I've been in.' Then she drank it herself. She was asleep in five minutes and she died within 20 minutes."

Sutherland took her own life under Oregon's Death With Dignity law, legislation that took effect in 1997 that allows terminally ill patients to obtain lethal doses of medication from their doctors. No other state has such a law.

The reasons for the law's solid public support are connected with Oregon's famous independent streak, said Jim Moore, who teaches political science at Pacific University in Forest Grove.

"This is about access to assisted suicide, not necessarily being personally in favor of assisted suicide," Moore said.

George Eighmey, executive director of Compassion in Dying of Oregon, a group that advises assisted suicide patients in Oregon, said the law offers terminally ill patients a humane way to end their suffering.